TYLERFARM HOMESTEAD

Tis the season ~ Opening the "Shoppe"

2011-11-28T19:50:00.000-05:00

The calendar tells me it's November 28th. The thermometer tells me that it's Indian summer - the temp was 65 degrees today! All of our snow is melting and we have mud........each year it seems Mother Nature cannot make up her mind when it comes to winter - is it or isn't it? We are prepared....and I would really love a white Christmas :)
The sheep and chickens are very happy to have bare ground again. The chickens spend their days out pecking and scratching. The sheep looking for a blade of grass that they may have missed the day before. Keeps them busy and out of trouble.

We had a busy post thanksgiving weekend. We are preparing to open our "Shoppe" each weekend for the month of December. Working full time leaves me little time for my sweet little shoppe. I do love spending time there and am really looking forward to being open.

Yesterday we trekked through the woods tipping balsams, spruce and white pine. We are making and selling wreaths this year. It's been quite some time since I have made wreaths and it was so enjoyable to be in the woods. The air was so fresh and it was so quiet. We are offering 18" wreaths with a bow and pine cones. The photo below is the wreath we are offering. I'm hoping to make a few after work each night and have a nice selection for the weekend.

Our new pullets are finally laying.....farm fresh eggs are available as well as beautiful, soft hand dyed yarns and roving from our sheep. Jewelry, greeting cards, framed and matted photographs along with many other items are available in the "Shoppe". Our hours are Saturday and Sunday from 10 - 3. Stop in and enjoy a cup of mulled cider with us. We would love to see you!

Wishing you all a happy, productive week.

Cheers!

Deb

Happy Thanksgiving ~

2011-11-24T07:08:00.000-05:00

A pre-thanksgiving snowstorm coated everything with 8 inches of wet, heavy snow. A little shoveling and plowing and playing in the snow with the puppies filled our day.
It is beautiful as the sun rises this morning. Having an extra couple of days off is a bonus and I'm loving behing home. Mom and I started preparing food yesterday and the wood cookstove is roaring and ready to be cook up a storm.

These three were thrilled to play in the snow. In this photo they are waiting for someone to throw the next snowball!

All of us at Tylerfarm wish you and your families and very Happy Thanksgiving filled with love, laughter and great food! In such troubled and difficult economic times, we are very greatful for all the blessings in our lives.

Cheers,
Deb

Happenings..........

2011-11-13T17:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Autumn......it's been a beautiful fall season here in Maine. Sunny days, temps in the 50's and 60's. Gentle breezes and a halloween snowstorm! 6" for our area but 18 inches a half hour north of us. So many without power in southern New England for days. A taste of what's to come before too long :)

As changes continue here at Tylerfarm, we are slowly rebuilding our sheep flock. I raised Shetland and Finn sheep for many, many years here but decided when change became necessary that I would change breeds as well. We decided on Coopworth sheep. They are a bigger breed than what we previously had. The biggest perk for me is that they only have to be shorn once per year. The finns were twice per year. I'm fortunate to be able to shear my own but once per year is more than enough. Their fleece is looking lovely and shearing time will be very exciting here.

Our new ladies - they are all approximately 6 months old. From left to right: Godiva; Ghiradelli; Skittles and Maggie Mae. All are registered Coopworth and all were born and raised here in Maine. They are sweet, personable gals and we are very excited at the prospect of lambs from these gals. Our plans are to add eight more ewes over time and have a small flock of 12 breeding ewes.

Winter preperations are well underway. We stripped the sheep barn and added fresh straw today. The chicken house is buttoned up and the ladies will be nice and cozy as the cold, winter wind blows. The woodshed is nearly full and the tractor ready to run the snowblower. We try to be as prepared for whatever mother nature throws at us. You just never know what the weather is going to be aroudn here!

I hope all is well with you and yours. I look forward to catching up with you all soon :)

Deb

Catching up :)

2011-08-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

Hello from sunny Maine! It's hard for me to believe that my last post was in March and now it's August!! I hope this finds you all well and having a wonderful summer. We have had a couple of months with very little rain.....haying is in full swing but the hay crop isn't the greatest. Gardens are producing although struggling because of the lack of water. Nonetheless, we are grateful for what the earth gives us :)

Lots of changes on the farm in the last few months but we are still farming! I am still working in the city during the day and still really like my job. I work for a fantastic company and look forward to going to work everyday. Not having to worry about health insurance and a paycheck are blessings in themselves :)

I sold off my sheep herd a couple of months ago. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do but it was necessary. I'm down to three cows but that is about to change. I have spent the last few months with a skeleton crew of animals trying to figure out what direction my life was going to go in. I'm finding out what I can handle and work a full time job. As much as I love the sheep and goats, raising beef seems to be less demanding of my time. I have a new bull coming this month and hopefully will have two new calves next spring. I am going to to have sheep again but am still deciding on which breed and what their main purpose is going to be. Of course the chickens are still here and the guineas are doing a great job keeping the tick population down. Danny and Otis are still moving around what animals we have and keeping the rodents/predators at bay. We have added a new pup to the mix. I'll have a photo or two soon :)

As fall approaches, I feel the need to prepare for winter. The woodshed is not full yet so that is a priority. The oil barrel needs to be filled. That's extremely painful on the wallet! A few more repairs and the barn will be ready for the animals for another winter. We have been making fence repairs the last few weekends and ran an underground water line from the barn to the garden. No more bucketing water to the plants - such a treat!

The harvest will be upon us soon and tomatoes are just starting to ripen! With only one garden this year, we won't be storing as much in the pantry as usual but what we do have will taste great in the dead of winter. We are going to plant for fall crops this weekend and that will extend the harvest a little longer :)

I hope your gardens are thriving and that life is good where you are. I hope to have time to check in here more often and I'll have pictures soon :)

Deb

A post with no pictures ~

2011-03-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Happy March ~ I could almost believe that spring is on it's way if it wasn't for the 15 foot snowbanks and the -15 degree temperatures we have had this past week. Today started out rainy/snowy and by afternoon the sun was shining and it was almost 50 degrees. I took great advantage of this weather to do barn work, haul hay and anything that I haven't had a chance to do lately. I have a great 9 to 5 but it does shorten my time on the farm.

This is the first year in more than 10 that I have not had spring lambs. Certainly doesn't feel right :) I am slowly rebuilding my sheep herd and will be having lambs here next year. We will be having a litter of baby rabbits and I purchased a new calf today. He's only 4 days old so he will stay with his Mama for awhile longer before I bring him home.

I have been teaching Adult Ed classes and the Raising Chickens class we incredible. I had 12 people...mostly men. Everyone is really starting to embrace the concept of where their food comes from. These folks were so into it. They asked tons of questions and I was so inspired when the class was over. The next class at the end of the month is an Edible Landscaping class. Teaching is so different when the people in your class are there because they truly want to be, not because they have to be.

I hope all is well where you are.......I do read your blogs when time permits. I'm starting to figure out how to manage my time between the farm and work. It's getting better all the time!

Next post I'll show you my new toy and how it became mine.

Until next time,

Deb

Tylerfarm

Mother nature is throwing her weight around lately ~

2011-02-03T21:18:00.000-05:00

The only critters happy around here are the birds. They never seem to mind when they have to brush the snow off their feeders before they can eat. Some of us aren't so happy. We received another sh*t load of snow yesterday and another storm heading our way for Saturday and then another on Tuesday. It has been a true New England winter. Now most of you know I really love the snow but I have spent more time in my tractor moving it than I have playing in it. I have to snowblow paths for the sheep, it's deeper than they are! I have yet to get to Mt Washington and enjoy a sleigh ride with my Dad. I have got to change my ways :)

Danny seems to enjoy the snow more each year. He's waiting for Otis to make his move so he can tackle him. They are such fun to watch. Like two little boys looking for mischief.

We retained a little ewe out of this group of quads last year. Her name is Clary Berry and she is the tiniest little sheep. She is slowly catching up with the other lambs born at the same time. She was literally stuck in the snow. Her legs are so tiny and she tried hopping through the snow. One jump and she was sunk :) She patiently stood there while I waded in to get her. It was much easier for them to get out of the barn after plowing.

Other than a little whining going on, all is well here at the farm. Today's brilliant sun shining on the clean snow went along way to improving my outlook for a day or two anyways :)

I start teaching my Adult Ed classes next week. The first class is "Raising chickens in your backyard". Who knew people would pay to take such a class? I am so excited. I'm teaching four different classes this semester. The people are there because they really want to be and we all have such a good time and the friendships that form are a blessing.

Wishing you all a happy weekend - see you next time.

Deb

A frosty January greeting ~

2011-01-22T08:03:00.000-05:00

Mother nature has been doing her job lately and doing it well! Snow, snow and more snow. This photo was from a storm we had last week. Not only did it snow inches per hour, the winds were furious. A true Nor'Easter enveloped the farm and hurled at us for a good 16 - 18 hours. 26 inches of new snow in one storm ~ yesterday another "small" storm dumped an additional 9 inches.

The red sky does not show up well in the photo along with the huge fireball in the center. I took this photo as the sun was rising. I knew before the day was over we were going to be hit with another snowstorm. Everything was so serene.........the calm before the storm never lies :)

The animals all fared well as did those of us who were housebound. Three of us spent hours cleaning up and moving snow around. Thankfully the temps were not brutal. That is all about to change so I hear.

The predicted low for us on Sunday evening : -30! Now that's cold. Mind you, I love winter and think all the snow is just beautiful. I'm not appreciative of temperatures that cold. The heat tapes are on in the barn and the tub heaters will work overtime. One tub I cover with plywood, the other is in the sheep barn. With everyone huddled in that barn, that water will not get so cold.

A busy weekend preparing the barn to keep everyone comfortable; stacking extra fire wood on the porch and keeping the woodstoves cranking.

Tom and I are car shopping today. He knows what he wants and we have a destination in mind. He's done awesome and will be very happy to have his own wheels again!

That's about it from here......hope you are well and staying warm.

A friend sent me a great quote and I wanted to share it - great words of wisdom :)

"There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So, love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of LIFE...Getting back up is LIVING....."

End of the week.........

2011-01-09T09:12:00.001-05:00

A beautiful Sunday morning here in the North East. Sunshine greeted us early and even the January sun gives a little warmth, especially on the south side of the barn. I left the south end doors open this morning giving Daisy and the bunnies a little sunshine.

Sunday morning sunrise over the farm

Otis & Danny

We only have a few inches of snow. Last weeks 50 degree days didn't help with that and the promised snow for this weekend never happened. I'm not terrible disappointed but it would be nice to have a little more. The dogs love the snow and plowing through the powder with their noses is one of their favorite pastime. Otis, our little red dog, has grown into quite a fellow. He and Danny are best buds and are ALWAYS rough housing :)

"Harriett"

Our calf is growing quickly. They seem to gain so much better when you let them stay with the cow. She eats whenever she wants and that's very often! She's got quite a personality and is getting quite social. I have a small salt lick in the feed bucket for her Mother. I had to put it up high so the sheep wouldn't get into it. Harriett is a nosey little thing and would love to knock it off if she could. She had that look like "what, I wasn't doing anything".

Our guineas are not fond of getting their feet cold. They run to the barn in the morning, eat the corn I throw out for them and then head right back for their roost poles in the guinea house. The sun normally keeps the snow melted in front of their door which gives them a dry place to get a drink and pick and scratch around. The love to come in the barn and scratch but they make a mess. They spend a lot of time in their house or on the roof because the black shingles are warm on their feet.

That's about it for this week. Today will be spent doing everything I didn't get done yesterday :) The barn work has been done for the week - need to work in the house. I'm glad that last week is behind me - it was full of ups and down and I really hate riding that roller coaster. Hopefully, this week will be quieter with less bumps in the road. One can always hope :)

This little snowman greets you as you enter our front door. I am reluctant to remove him - it makes me smile every time I walk up the steps. Even though the holidays are over, I think he will keep his place for awhile. If your smiling at the end of your day, all will be well!

Have a wonderful week - I will be back next weekend if nothing unexpected gets in the way.

Deb

Tylerfarm

Happy New Year ~

2011-01-01T22:11:00.002-05:00

A perfect day to enjoy the first day of the New Year here in the Northeast. 50 degrees and sunny. It smelled like spring when I headed to the barn this morning. Now that I'm working a full time job, the only time I see my animals during the day is the weekend. I spent a leisurely morning cleaning, moving a little snow, sharing pats and scratches with the sheep and simply enjoying being there.

We actually saw the New Year's ball drop this year. A first in a very long time. I arrived home to a lovely buffet all laid out by none other than my great kids. They have had this planned for awhile. Maine shrimp; cheese & crackers, etc. To top it off, the blender was ready to make frozen margaritas - my favorite :) Our awesome friends and neighbors, the Kimballs arrived shortly after and we all had a great evening together as we welcomed 2011. I hope the way it started is an indicator that it's going to a fabulous year for all of us!

"Rellen"

"Tyler"

Christmas morning photos - we had a wonderful holiday season. I'm a very lucky Mom!

"Sarah"

Some of you remember Charlotte, our sow that we lost last year to a broken leg. We were heartbroken. She was as sweet as could be and gave us 13 little piglets. I decided to keep one of her female piglets to raise. Daisy is as sweet as her Mom was. I let her out today to get some exercise and enjoy the sunshine. She was a happy girl :)

"Enjoying the sunshine"

"Daisy & Danny having a chat"

Mr. Pig should be arriving soon and hopefully we will have piglets in the spring. It will be nice for them to be able to spend nice days outside in the "summer" pig area.

Our new calf, Harriet, changes so much in just a weeks time. She is a beautiful chocolate brown color rather than coal black like her Mom, Hope. She lives with her Mom and the small flock of sheep that we have. It's apparent that she is quite comfortable with them. One morning this past week it was very cold when I went to the barn and they were all inside. I peaked in and there's Harriet, surround by her very own heating season. Full fibered sheep!

"Harriet and her furry friends enjoy the sunshine and breakfast"

That's the news from here. Thanks for stopping in for a visit. I'll try to get here again next saturday for an update and to check everyone's blogs. I miss reading them like I used to :)

Have a great week everyone~

Deb

Farm notes...........

2010-12-18T06:36:00.000-05:00

Happy holidays everyone ~ I hope you are enjoying the festivities of the season as we are here at Tylerfarm. The temp outside feels like winter but our ground is bare of snow. We are hoping Sunday nights storm brings us a little white stuff to add to the feeling of Christmas :) Below is a photo of our lovely tree. We enjoyed a great family evening on this Wednesday past decorating it and reminiscing about our ornaments, especially those when the boys were back in kindergarten! Such fond memories :)

No matter what time of year it is or what's going in any of our lives, new life springs forth here at the farm when the time is right. On December 7, one of our first time heifers, Hope, gave birth to our sweet new addition, Harriett. Harriett is a black angus/red angus and will spend her days on the farm, hopefully producing beautiful little replicas of herself. Hope delivered her while I was at work and all was well when I arrived home. I was thrilled and relieved to see all was well!

On another happy note, I have been fortunate to land a job at a local health care organization. I have been there for a few weeks now. I enjoy the commute, the people I work with are great, the organization treats their employees exceptionally well and the job security is fantastic. I am enjoying being part of the public work force again. The security is a great feeling but it also allows me to continue to plan for the farm and the farm shop which will both continue to grow and flourish.

That's my newsy update for now. I wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons. I hope to catch up more often now that life is settling into more of a routine. I hope you are all well and happy!

Thanks for still checking in on us here at Tylerfarm.

Deb and the gang ~

In honor of all our Veterans..........my sincere thanks ~

2010-11-11T10:38:00.000-05:00

Heroes

By Jared Jenkins

In war, there are lives risked and lives taken

Men and women giving their best to defend what they love

They defend their country

Their honor

Their people

Some call them soldiers

Others call them heroes

Our veterans have risked their lives for us

They have lived through hell and fought with honor

Many have killed

And regret doing so

For every life, there is a soul

For every soul, there is a life

For those who have died, we show great appreciation and remembrance

For those who live, along with them live the horrific memories of battle

Some, memories of defeat

Some, memories of victory

Our veterans were more than soldiers

They were, and still are heroes

A new season, a new start..........

2010-10-31T19:33:00.000-04:00

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Fall has arrived here in the Northeast. The leaves went from green to beautiful reds, oranges and yellows and have now turned brown and are covering our fields and forests. The sky was very ominous today, Mother nature not being able to decide if it wanted to rain or just make us wonder. The winds have been gusty and it smells like winter isn't far behind. I love the changing of the seasons and this year it's especially poignant for me.
Personally, I'm at the beginning of a new season as well. Suffice to say, my 19 year marriage did not survive a long distance work relationship and I find myself single again. It's been a very strange, emotional few months but the healing has begun and I have so many new and wonderful things to look forward to as well as so many things to be thankful for and believe me, I am!

(We have a new farm sign! My friend Luke, handcrafted the letters out of used work horse shoes for me. Thank you Luke - it's awesome!!)

I have given my long range plans a lot of thought regarding the farm and though I have downsized and turned things around somewhat, Tylerfarm is still going strong and will continue as long as I stay healthy and enjoy it. Our sheep flock has gone from 60 to 10 with a new ram on his way here. Sometimes businesses grow so fast that it spins out of control and becomes so much work, it's not a joy anymore. That's where I was at. Now I am back to where a few lambies in the spring will be as exciting as it used to be, not a worrisome burden as it can be when you have 40 babies in a matter of a few days. Our fiber, roving and yarns will be better because sometimes doing less and doing it better really makes a huge difference.

(My pumpkin eating sheep :)

In other farm news, the 9 piglets that we raised have all gone to the butcher and then to the customers who ordered them. I like to raise them and having piglets for the first time was awesome but I'm always glad when they are gone. When they weigh 250 lbs, they are a little unnerving! I did keep one of the sow piglets, Daisy, and we will raise her and breed her to have a litter of piglets in the spring. I won't raise 9 again at one time but will do a few for special customers that I have.

I have also been interviewing for a full time off the farm job. I have worked with a vocational councilor on my resume and I have to say 30 years of working and life experience looks great on two sheets of paper! I interviewed last Thursday and have another at our local hospital on Tuesday. I am looking forward to going back to work, being in a social environment during the day and having the farm and my wonderful family to come home to everyday.
I have been teaching classes for our local Adult Ed program and will do more during the winter semester. I have been approached to teach at another school as well. It's terrific that people are becoming so conscious regarding their food and wanting to learn to produce more of it for themselves and I love being able to help them do that. I feel so blessed to be able to share what I have learned in my life with others.

(I never tire of driving down our driveway - I leave my troubles at the end of the road)

I'm going to keep my shop open on Saturdays. We will continue to have beef and lamb as well as eggs and roving, yarns, sheep skins and hand crafted gifts for sale. I'm adding new kits and other items as time permits. A HUGE thank you to all of my customers who have continued to shop with us during the last few months of chaos. I appreciate all of you!

(A festive gift from a friend - Thank you Anita! )

........and thanks to all of you who continue to read the blog, even though I have been in hiding lately. I hope to find the time to be here more often and share what's going on around the farm.

~Happy Autumn to you all ~

It's been awhile ~

2010-10-07T06:14:00.000-04:00

It's been so long since I've had a chance to post, we have gone from summer to autumn! Our foliage season here in the Northeast has already passed it's peak and it's starting to look drab. Certainly looks and feels like October. I am enjoying the cooler temps and we are having our fall rains. We really needed them.
Life has been changing in leaps and bounds at the farm. Good changes are coming around, including this surprise litter of bunnies. 11 little hoppers showed up unexpectedly. Even though I'm supposed to be cutting back on animals, I brought home two rabbits for Sarah. One of them had five babies with her, about 5 weeks old. I had no idea the doe was re-bred!! Oh well, it was a happy surprise and they are well loved. We will find good homes for them when they are old enough to leave their Mom. Anyone want a bunny?

I hope all is well where you are. I do read all your blogs when time permits. Hopefully I can get back here more often. Have a nice day everyone!!

Where to start?

2010-08-22T17:25:00.000-04:00

This blog post has been a long time coming...........just haven't known where to jump in and begin. I really don't believe in endings - simply new beginnings. My life and life on the farm is changing in some big ways. Good ways....exciting things to come for our entire family.

I've spent the last 14 months with my husband working on an island off the coast of Maine renovating an old stone mansion school. He was home on weekends, sometimes not even that. While this was an interesting, once in a lifetime opportunity, it was extremely difficult for our family. With the help of our two sons and family, we survived it although not unscathed by any means. Separation is difficult no matter how prepared you think you are. I've worked more hours per week than I care to count and have been doing that for a very long time. The sacrifice was worth it......for my family but.........I'm tired. Plain and simple. I overwintered 60 sheep last year along with a dozen head of cattle and a multitude of other farm animals. While I loved all the animals and cherished all the joy they gave me, I certainly do not want to spend another Maine winter like that. This farm and what we have created here is amazing but we have come to realize it is simply too much work for one person and not only that, it's simply not necessary any more.

Our boys are busy - growing up and moving on. The demand for fresh meats, milk & produce has diminished greatly here at home and certainly the demand is not there to warrant milking even one cow or having three gardens. I had just one garden this year and while the harvest has been good, without rain for over a month now, it hasn't been fabulous and we STILL have more produce that we can eat, can, feed to the pigs, etc.

So.........I am now down to just 12 sheep. All of our pygora goats have gone to loving, new homes. We are down to three head of cattle and a manageable amount of poultry. Of course, the donkey is here :) I plan to keep a half dozen finn ewes and one ram and allow them to cycle, breed and lamb on a natural schedule. I plan to continue selling lovely finn roving and hand dyed yarns through an on-line Etsy shop along with my weaving, jewelry, etc. We still have fresh meats in the shop as well as the above mentioned items but the shop will be closed by the end of September. Unfortunately money is always a deciding factor in every situation. Insurance prices keep rising and just to run the shop and liability on the farm, not animals or equipment, pricing is astronomical. We are afraid to run the farm without it so....it's a catch 22 situation.

The changes will make the farm manageable for me and also give me time to pursue a different part time career off the farm. I've been on the farm for 20 years now and feel like I'd like a little "social" time doing something interesting and making a steady pay check other than my adult ed teaching. Not sure what direction that will take me in but it's fun and exciting just thinking about it :) It will also give me more time to truly enjoy the animals that do live here and enjoy the things I love to do ie., gardening, spinning, knitting, reading., etc.

School is about to start, Hubby is home and starting a new project close to home and hopefully our life will settle into a comfortable routine. I hope the blog will resume with new and interesting topics, farming and gardening included. Tomorrow - the tomato harvest has begins.

For those of you that still come to visit, Thank You..........I look forward to catching up with all of you :)

It's a date!

2010-07-30T15:52:00.000-04:00

............for this evening to go to the movies with a very special 15 year old. He's taking time out of his busy schedule to hang with his Mom! He's been really looking forward to seeing this movie and it's showing at the new Cinemagic theatre. I know I'll enjoy it, just because I'm going with one of my boys. I'll post a review tomorrow :)

A glorious summer day~

2010-07-30T08:21:00.000-04:00

Mornings just can't get any better than this one in my book. A beautiful sunrise, 50 degrees and no humidity! My kind of weather.
I started the day with an early cup of coffee, listening to the sounds of peace on the farm. No one stirring - everyone still nestled in their places of comfort, waiting for dawn to break. Once the sun does rise, look out. Things change quickly!!

Most of our little goaties have gone to their new homes. As you can see, they are very friendly and love attention! Two little wethers remain for now until their new family is ready to take them home. It's very rewarding when our babies go to loving homes, especially with children. These children are adorable and these goat kids are extremely lucky!

Time to get busy......hope you all have a great day!

Maine's Open Farm Day

2010-07-24T14:22:00.000-04:00

Join us on Sunday, July 25 from 10 - 3 for Maine Open Farm Day!

Maine's Agricultural Community welcomes visitors on Open Farm Day ~

Every summer on the third Sunday in July, farms all over the state of Maine open their barn doors to the public to give them a chance to see where their food and fiber comes from. Stop in for a visit. We would love to chat with you about what we do here. Visit with the sheep, draft horses, cows, donkey, pigs, goats, guines, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs & cats that make up the animal kindgdom here at Tylerfarm.

Browse our Farm Mercantile. We have a new supply of natural and dyed spun yarns and roving from the sheep and goats that live on the farm and a couple of alpacas that spent a little time here as well. Everything in the shop other than food products will be offered at 20% off!

We will have spinning demonstrations throughout the day; farm tours at your own pace; a petting area and folks around to answer your questions and chat with.

The newest hatch on the farm ~

To read a nicely written article about he farm and Open Farm Day, pick up a copy of the Tourist News. A free guide to southern Maine and what's going on. We were very proud to be approached by these folks and are so pleased with the article. Thank you Anita for a job well done!

Hope to see you all on Sunday!

God Bless America ~

2010-07-04T10:40:00.003-04:00

Wishing you all a safe, happy, healthy Fourth of July ! God Bless our troops, past and present~

The school of hard knocks..........

2010-06-14T18:13:00.004-04:00

I'm no stranger to this school. I've been here more than once. It's always a very memorable education. Today was no exception. This was Charlotte, our super friendly sow last wednesday, enjoying her first mud bath of the season. She spent all winter in huge 10x20 box stall cushioned with deep straw, gaining weight, awaiting the birth of her piglets. All twelve of them!!

We moved Charlotte and her little sow, Daisy, out into the "piggy" paddock and noticed she had a limp and her hind right hock was swollen. I thought now that we had taken the rest of her babies off her and moved them to their own space, her leg would have a chance to heal. She favored it but seemed to getting around ok, eating and drinking. After checking her for three days, I called our friend the pig expert and he confirmed my suspicions. She had a broken leg and there was nothing anyone can do for her. She left this morning. No one can figure out how she did it, but that doesn't stop us from trying.

She wasn't just ANY pig.....she was really a special animal. She taught me so much about pigs and their behavior and we all loved her. She will be missed.

"Bliss"

2010-06-07T14:33:00.009-04:00

Today was weaning the little pigs day. Charlotte, our sow, is in 7th heaven!! We have had two days of thundershowers and her puddle was ready for her. It's the first place she landed and hasn't left yet :)

This is Daisy. She is the only female we kept of this litter. She will live with Charlotte. Today was her first experience with mud. She looks like she liked it~

The little boys are in the pig pen next door to Charlotte and Daisy. They can see Mom but can't get to her. They are 6 weeks old and weigh around 50-60 lbs. They eat very well on their own and Charlotte has got to be ready for the break. She has lost some weight but is still in good condition. Now she can dry up, relax and take it easy for awhile.

The move didn't seem to bother the little guys at all. They made themselves at home in the pig house and spent most of the day exploring every inch of the outside pen.

They are so naturally nosy :) They are looking into the ram pen. No fear, just natural curiousity. The rams pay them no mind.

Happy little porkers :)

Alpaca shearing; Fresh beef ~

2010-06-04T18:33:00.005-04:00

The alpaca shearing was great! The shearer was a great guy. Pleasant, cordial and more than willing to teach me how to shear my alpacas. By afternoon I sheared a pleasant wether from start to finish. I felt very proud of myself. I have to admit I'm a little sore today. He shears them on a thick mat on the floor of the barn. There's quite a lot of crawling around. We all had a great time! Thanks so much Carol for the invitation and the goodies :) See you in July.

The bad news.........Not one of us remember to take a camera :( DUH..... Carol let us take photos with her blackberry and will email them when she can catch her breath. I'll be sure to post them soon.

Today I re-stocked the farm market freezers with 700 pounds of fresh beef. Just in time for our summer community that returned last weekend. Business is picking up and Friday's and Saturday's will be busy from now on. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Another school year comes to a close........

2010-06-02T19:59:00.003-04:00

Life seems to get busier as the summer progresses. Our youngest, Tyler, has been a busy boy this past year and his schedule keeps me running :) He has participated on the Varsity Track & Field team, High School Band and Karate. That and high school homework, which there seems to be plenty of every night. He is looking forward to the end of homework but he will miss his team and the friends he has made over the year. I can actually remember (no, really I can :) when I was a freshman in high school and how important those friendships became in my life.

This photo was our trip to the last band concert. The students are required to wear white & black with tie to every performance. Tyler plays an assortment of drums, vibraphone, percussion instruments, bells, etc. They will be playing at the University of Southern Maine for the last Senior Assembly and also at the Portland Civic Center for Senior Gradation. He's really excited and looking forward to both evenings out. They performed in two great concerts at school for parents and fellow students. The Pops Concert was to raise money for equipment. It was wonderful to see a lot of participation by so many students in the audience, teachers, community, etc. We really had a great night out and the band and chorus are outstanding!

It has been a good year. We couldn't be more proud of Tyler and all that he has accomplished this year!

Tomorrow - shearing day for the alpacas.....photos will follow.

August in May ~

2010-05-26T06:41:00.007-04:00

............at least it feels like August. 92 degrees yesterday, 94 today. Yikes! The beaches were packed with folks, daring to enter the cold Atlantic water looking for a little relief. It has been very hot the last few days and the humidity has been steadily on the rise. The animals were all in the shade, trying to get a breath of fresh air and no one had much of an appetite.

My garden plants looked absolutely dead last night. My peppers seemed to have survived and most of the cabbage but a few of the broccoli plants are looking lost. I planted basil seed on Monday - I noticed several of them have popped up through the ground when I watered them tonight. Amazing what that kind of heat does for seed germination.

A cold front moved through around 7 pm with an hours worth of incredible wind which brought us cooler, more normal temps for this time of year. Thursday is supposed to be a pleasant day and we will finish planting our seeds and our potatoes. Tomato plants will go in as well. I doubt frost will show it's ugly head again until fall (crossing fingers).

Our piglets are growing quickly and Friday is castration day. This will be our first time and a good friend of ours who has been doing this for many, many years is going to come and give us a hand. Not sure how much we are looking forward to it but it' s something that has to be done. From what I've read it's a fairly simple and quick process. I'll update after the deed is done :)

Hubby and I had a chance to purchase a few flowering annuals for the planters. This whiskey barrel sits on the stump on the corner in front of my shop. We usually do a red, white & blue theme but opted for something completely different this year. We hope to plant more this weekend :)

A new week ~ new projects

2010-05-24T09:12:00.008-04:00

A gorgeous sunrise this morning......the start of a very warm day. 80's and near 90 this week in our neck of the woods. I remember an morning early last week when it was 28 degrees! The frost damaged my blueberries, bleeding hearts and hostas. I've never seen hostas so badly damaged in all the years we have lived here. I think they will come back but they look pretty brown and bedraggled at this point. Hopefully those temps are well behind us.

Planting begins in earnest today. Purchased all our bedding plants and will have them in the gardens by this evening. The soil has been setting fallow for two weeks now and is weed free. Hopefully it will stay that way.

I really enjoy working in the dirt but by noon the sun is right over head and just too hot for me. I'll do inside work and then after chores work in the gardens until sunset. We weed and work them after planting in the early morning before chores.

Our goat kids are really getting big and Mom's are ready for them to be weaned. Two of our babies will go to their new homes this coming weekend. Bluto, pictured below, has become our favorite. He has a great personality and would rather hang with people than eat. He loves to ride in the wheelbarrow when we hay the rest of the animals. He will jump into the wheelbarrow from their feeder and ride until we make him get out. They are great fun at this age :)

One thing we need to get is to shear the alpacas. I've been watching shearing videos on youtube. Looks easy but I have a feeling that's not going to be the case. They have adjusted to living here and are hesitantly social. They will eat treats out of our hand but really prefer not to be touched. They lead well once they are haltered and get along with the sheep just fine. Once they are sheared we will introduce them to the big pasture with all of the sheep.

They are very cute but they will spit at you if you piss them off. Scared the daylights out of Tom - he really didn't know what Scion was doing until he spit at him. The rest of us watching laughed because it really was funny. Deliberate and comical :) He likes them still and does very well with them. The fiber is beautiful and I am anxious to see what our yarn is like.

Sheep shearing is just about finished and we finished all the goats last week. Our goats look funny once they are sheared, especially Amos the Buck as he has really big horns and they look really huge on him without his fleece. I know they all feel much better and they look better as well.

My Dad and his two boys, Tom & Tyler are back at Wildwood Stables in Arcadia National Park, Maine. They will be there throughout the summer giving guided carriage tours through the park. If you get there, be sure to ask for "the old Cowboy". He will give you an awesome ride through that beautiful area with incredible views of the Atlantic ocean.

This is the top of my Dad's tack box. Tom sanded it all off and Sarah painted this beautiful picture of Tom & Tyler with my Dad. She is sooooooo talented! He absolutely loved it. Such a wonderful gift - we will miss him but I know how much he loves his job and that he will have a great summer :)

Time to get busy - wishing you all a pleasant, productive week ~

Final resting place.......

2010-05-17T09:22:00.005-04:00

Some of you may remember that I lost my faithful friend, Banjo, last June. There is not a day that goes by that I do not miss him at my side as we went about our routine everyday. . He left his mark on this farm and we all miss him still. We opted to have him privately cremated and he has been resting atop our big entertainment center, waiting for exactly the right spot to place his ashes.

Steve and my kids gave me a beautiful red maple tree as a mother's day gift. We celebrated yesterday as Steve has been away for a couple of weeks. We all, as a family, decided where to plant the tree and also decided it would make a perfect resting place for Banjo. It sits on our south lawn, and I can see it from both of the dining room windows which is where I spent most of my time when I'm inside. We spread his ashes in the soil and know that he will be watching over us everyday.

It's a great feeling to know he's at peace and not suffering. It's also a peaceful feeling to look out the window from my rocker and feel his presence around our tree and bring to a close that sad time in my life.

Farm Funnies.........

2010-05-15T07:01:00.005-04:00

A friend sent these along and they are too cute not to share. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Growing season.........

2010-05-09T20:24:00.016-04:00

It has been a crazy, hectic week and we have been so busy with one project right after another. Fencing is taking up a lot of our time during the day. We hauled 6 ton of round baled hay home on Wednesday. I also purchased two bales of wrapped baleage. I have never fed this before but the cattle and sheep seem to enjoy it and it will definitely stretch our hay. It smells like vinegar - pickled long grass. The sheep will blatt and blatt until I give them a little of it during night chores. I'm hoping to head north again this week and pick up 20 more bales.

The unusually warm spring weather continues and it's wonderful to see everything growing and flourishing with the sunshine. The above photo is the new pasture that we put in and seeded last year. It is about 8 inches high and ready for the sheep. The sheep are in a smaller pasture right now to get them used to grass again and they are loving it.

Babies ate their fill and then crashed in the sunshine. They are all growing so quickly. Only two little wethers still look like babies. It's been amazing to watch as they mature, what type of fleece each one will have. Of course, I'd like to keep them all but I know that's not practical :)

Speaking of fleece, remember the new M&M's - when they came to live here they were in full fleece. Gorgeous silver fiber and lots of it! Below are the girls with their coats on.

Last week we introduced them to the shearing stand and gave each one of them a haircut and a pedicure. I really think they felt much better without all that wool. About 15lbs per sheep.

They have made themselves right at home, mixing with the other sheep and observing the lambs from a distance. They are beautiful sheep and we are delighted to have them. I hope to get it all skirted this week and up to the fiber mill. I am so excited to see what Diane does with it.

Our little piglets are also growing quickly. Charlotte feeds them about four times a day and they are now eating baby pig crumbles. They love to cuddle with their Mom but they enjoy using their creep area with the heat lamp. At just two weeks old, they have more than doubled in size and are a handful. They are also getting very curious. I sat in with them for about 15 minutes and after a minute or two they were all gathered around me, sniffing and nibbling on my shoes. It has been a wonderful process and we will definitely have baby pigs again.

The barn swallows have moved back in the barn, readying the nest to lay their eggs. As they are working on both, I'm not sure which one they will use. They dive bomb us as we exit the barn, preferring we didn't enter their territory. They will set on the top rail of the fence outside the door, and really give us the what for.

Scion and David, the newest members of the farm, are doing well and settling in. They are very interested in the sheep and from what I've read and been told, they will do well mixed with the girls. I have a couple of ewes whose lambs need to be weaned and I'm going to introduce them to the boys. They are very mellow and will come to the fence for a small treat. Tom has been handling them and is doing very well. He really likes them and I think from their attitude that they are comfortable with him as well. The next project will be to shear them. Another learning curve :)

This weeks project is to get the gardens planted. The soil has warmed up nicely and been mellow for a week now. The soil remains weed free and I'm anxious to play in the dirt. I did get a chance to drive to the seed store and purchase what we needed. We are ready to plant!

This is our flowering crab that hubby and the boys gave me last year for Mother's Day. It is completely covered with beautiful little pink flowers. It has grown so much in the last year and I can imagine how big and beautiful it will be in years to come. I love gifts that keep on giving and being able to enjoy the blooms of this tree from my rocking chair each year is a special gift.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mom's out there ~

Happenings around the Farm ~

2010-05-02T18:01:00.002-04:00

I honestly do not know where the week went! It's been a whirlwind here with many things getting done and new things popping up. First a piggie update. These little buggers are growing so fast and they are incredibly fun to watch. They are just happy - content - precious little critters. Charlotte is an awesome Mom - thankfully everything worked out just fine. They had their iron shots today. How they squeal.....It was fairly painless and took just seconds. It didn't overly stress them as they went right back to rooting in the soil immediately.

They have a playpen area of their own with a heat lamp where they can nap and stay warm without Mom. Due to our warm weather they aren't snuggling quite as tight but we all know how quickly New England weather can change.
As you can see, they are surely loved :)

In other farm news, the gardens plots are tilled and ready for planting. Hopefully this week will find us in the soil planting cool weather crops. We will have to wait until the end of the month to plants cukes & tomatoes, etc. I've seen hard frost in May several times and I'm not going to push our luck.

New critters are moving in. We have been gifted with three beautiful romney ewes. These gals, Milley, Moxie & Maddie ( the M&M's as Tom calls them ) came from a loving home and we are delighted to add them to our flock. Thank you Elaine & Bob! The fiber from these gals will be fabulous! They are warming up to us and learning that animal crackers are a good thing. They will go out with the other ewes sometime this week.

It is a known fact among my friends that I am a wool snob. I love my sheep and I love wool and never really had any interest in owning any other kind of fiber animals. I do enjoy my little pygora goats and keep a small flock for their lovely fiber and the fact their antics would cheer up anyone. I've never considered llamas or alpacas. I know they have gorgeous fiber and they make good guard animals. I also know that they have been pretty pricey.

To keep this a short story, these two fellows are coming to live on the farm as well. The entire process was a whirlwind but we are going to give them a try.

David

Scion ( I hope I have spelled that right)

Aren't they cute? I love the colors and both have lovely fiber and pleasant dispositions. It will be a learning curve for us but we are willing and able and will certainly enjoy the process. Thank you Carol!

Anyone who has advise for newbie alpaca owners, please feel free to send along your knowledge. We are going to need it!

Have a great week everyone!

Piglets!

2010-04-27T11:29:00.007-04:00

Our Miss Pig, Charlotte, worked several days making her nest just right to have her brood. She had quite a mound of straw in the middle of her big stall and then she laid there and panted and panted and panted. All day Monday we checked her several times and she didn't seem to be progressing at all. The panting and groaning continued through evening chores and I figured she would be that way until morning. I did a barn check at 7:30 pm. and nothing had changed. Tom did a barn check at 9pm and called to say we had a piglet. We all raced to the barn, cameras in hand to view something we had never seen before. Piglet #1 - they are very cuddly :) It was ten minutes and she had number 2; and then 3; and 4,5,6,7,8 and by 11 pm she had 9 little piglets. Tom would rub her belly in between delivering the piglets and then catch each one as the delivered it. I would then wipe the face and nose off and cut the umbilical cords. The membrane on the piglets is so fine that it almost disintegrates as the air hits it. Mother pigs do not clean off their babies as cows or sheep do. They are extremely active from the time they hit the ground. I was trying to contain them to one area so she could deliver the rest without the first few disturbing her. The piglets were having none of it. They were hungry and that's all there was it.

These three had to have a drink of milk before Mama pig could continue with the work of delivering the rest of her babies. They instinctively know where to go for the faucet. It wasn't long and they were full and warm.
In a matter of just a very few minutes, she had seven and I had them corralled and was trying to keep them there so she could finish. These little guys can crawl and scoot around - you just wouldn't believe it. They climbed right over that 2x6 and were headed for their Mother! I finally told Tom I couldn't stop them and let them all out of their pen.

Charlotte and her nine babies at 11:30 p.m. Monday evening. All seemed well and we all decided to go to the house and our beds. When I went to the barn this morning at 6 I was very surprised to find three more piglets.....12 sweet little piglets, all cuddled up to Mom, as content and happy as can be. I am overjoyed at the entire process. It was so worth all the time and effort - Charlotte is so trusting of Tom - he has done so well with her since we bought her as a baby. It wasn't so long ago I can remember Tom not being into the animals at all. What a change in him as well. Funny how animals can bring out the best in all of us. I'm very proud of Charlotte and Tom as well.

~Sweet dreams ~

Miss Charlotte, the pig

2010-04-23T08:12:00.006-04:00

Miss Charlotte loves to have her belly rubbed and Tom is one of her favorite people. As you can see, he's very good to her and she would lay in that same position as long as he would. If she is standing up when we go in her house and she even thinks you might scratch her belly, she will flop down on one side or the other and wait :) She's very funny and as you can see, very pregnant.

Charlotte went out yesterday afternoon to stretch her legs. You can see she's making milk and ready to have those piglets. She's been working on her nest and wasn't interested in her breakfast this morning. There is mud in front of the cow gate and of course she found it. The cows weren't sure what to think of her! We didn't leave her out too long as she was huffing and puffing as it was. She's carrying a lot of extra weight and I didn't want her to get too stressed.

This is our first time having piglets.......as advised, we've made a space for the piglets to get under a heat lamp in fresh, clean shavings that Charlotte cannot get into. Sometimes mother pigs will lay on their babies and crush them without realizing it. This helps protect them and also keep them warm for the first couple of weeks.

Another exciting adventure on Tylerfarm! I'll post an update as she progresses.

Have a great day ~

The "new"to do list.....

2010-04-19T06:36:00.003-04:00

I think everyone has several "to do " lists, I know we do. We just finished one and now a new one begins. This is the "after tax time" list. I am always so happy and relieved when that's done for another year.

Gardening begins this week. We began preparing our garden plots last fall and the amendments have been working together over the winter and are now ready to be lightly tilled and readied for planting. If all goes well we will be planting cold hardy crops in just a few days. Over the last couple of years of selling fresh produce, we know what the public wants as well as what our family prefers and have adjusted our varieties accordingly. I love being in the dirt -

Another task is hauling hay. Seems we are always doing that. The second story of our barn cannot hold enough square bales to get us through until the next haying season so the farmer we buy hay from stores our extra in his barn. We will haul that home this week as well as the 2nd crop we have left in his barn for our lactating ewes and their lambs. Even though we had a tough haying season last year, it appears their will be plenty of hay to get everyone through until the farmers can get on their fields and start mowing this year. That's always a relief to everyone.

Maine kids are on vacation this week and Ty has track practice everyday so we are running back and forth to school twice a day. Of course, practice begins during morning chores.......we are trying to make THAT schedule work :) We will figure it all out....it's good to have him home. Our school kids work hard everyday - I know he's as mentally tired at the end of the day as I am physically tired. They surely need the time off.

Yesterday we visited three very nice Romney sheep that will be coming to live at the farm next weekend. The story of their moving is very sad and yet their arrival is a blessing to their owners. We are happy to add them to our flock and the fiber and yarn that will be produced from their beautiful silver fleeces will be lovely.

We still have a few ewes that need to be sheared and these three gals need to be done as well. New yarns arrived on friday. I did take photos but haven't gotten them here yet. Some lovely lopi weight shetland. New natural colors that I'm very happy with. We will be putting up the screen house soon as yarn dyeing needs to start soon.

Time to get busy.....hope you all have a great day. The sun is shining here after three days of rain......I know it's going to be a good day!

~ Wordless Wednesday ~

2010-04-14T18:52:00.008-04:00

Sunny Sunday ~

2010-04-11T08:04:00.006-04:00

I watched the sunrise this morning and it's a beautiful day. It was a sweatshirt morning for chores and the temp is rising quickly. All of the sheep are happily munching away as their babies are curled up in small clusters, taking their morning naps. I love the silence of content animals.

Steve and I are putting the screen on our farmer's porch today - it will be wonderful to set out there and enjoy the lovely weather without black flies and mosquitoes. With all the rain we have had, the bugs are here already, pestering the animals during the late afternoon. They all have shady shelter to get away from them and they have been using it.

Wishing you a peaceful, sunny day~

"Neighbors"

2010-04-09T08:04:00.007-04:00

The new pasture I put in last year is coming in lush and green. It's drawing a lot of attention from our animal neighbors. I wish everything here was coming in as quickly and as good as this piece. Hopefully we will get more ground seeded this coming year.

These lovely ladies meandered on through the other night. The came in from the North side of the big pasture and headed straight to the new piece. I very quietly made my way around the side of the run in shed and shot these photos. It wasn't long before they spied me and headed down toward the back. They didn't go far. Once I was out of photo range, they were right back there, eating again. We see the deer every night now. I hope once we get the new fencing up, they learn to go around instead of through it.

This morning around five I heard a big gobbler. Tom had heard them last night as it was getting dark. About 6:30 this morning they were in the new piece as well. Not sure what they were eating but they weren't in a hurry. The guineas were pretty put out by them being here. How they squawked. I knew something was around that normally isn't because they were making a racket first thing this morning. They are great watch dogs.

Lots of small bird activity as well. Our flycathers are busy making their nest in the eves of the guinea house and the woodshed. The other morning Mom and I saw the flicker several times.

I didn't have my camera handy....this is a photo of what they look like. They are a beautiful bird and it's a sure sign of spring when they show up. The robins have been busy along with the goldfinches and tufted titmice. The nuthatch, the little blue bird that eats upside down and my favorite of all of them, is making a nest in our little crooked bird house. Not sure who made this house but it has been hanging here a long time and is normally used by the tree swallows. The nuthatches' beat them to it this year :)
We have two sets of wild mallards down back in the small pond hanging with our ducks and the canadian geese are around as well. I thought I heard the loon early one morning this week but I wasn't 100% sure. I have to be on the doorstep really early to hear them but they are worth waiting for. They usually nest across the street down on the river.

Spring has surely arrived and everything smells wonderful.............

Spring lambs ~

2010-04-06T16:03:00.006-04:00

It has been brought to my attention that I did not introduce the lambies that are in our new header photo. Ooops.......

It's been a fantastic lambing season for us and lambing has concluded for this year. Twenty one lambs....10 ewes and 11 rams, no loss of ewes or lambs. We have a new ewe that came to live here a couple of weeks ago that may lamb at the end of the month. Of course, all are adorable and I want to keep them all at this point. As time goes by, I will have to make some tough choices as I have 55 sheep! Yikes - funny how they add up so quickly at lambing time :)

We initially were going to use the Greek/Roman God theme but everyone decided it didn't suit us. We then decided to use the first letter of each ewe's name.

Introducing:

Pennyroyals twins: Peggy and Patsy (1/2 shetland / 1/2 finn)

Daphne's twins: Dillon & Dalton (1/2 shetland/ 1/2 finn)

Pheobe's twins: Paige & Parson (3/4 Finn/1/4 Coop)

Wrens twins: Wallace & Winnie (3/4 Finn 1/4 Coop)

Bella's single: Bridget (Coopworth/Finn)

We had two sets of ram lambs born in the last two days. Coopworth/Finn and Shetland /Finn. They are still in the jugs and I haven't taken photos yet. Chammomille is still the maternity ward with her quads. Tomorrow is supposed to be a gorgeous day - they will all go out in the sunshine tomorrow and we will clean out the jugs for another year.

Enjoy! Anyone want to buy a lamb?

ps.....in the header photo is Parson, Wallace & Winnie.

Monday, Monday ~

2010-04-05T21:51:00.002-04:00

Monday isn't always my favorite day of the week but today wasn't so bad. I'm working diligently to finish the farm taxes by April 15th. I will be at the Accountants and have them done before the deadline rolls around. There always seems to be something more important to do :)

Lambing has concluded until the end of the month. We have 21 sweet little bundles of energy running around and they seem to call to me through the window to come and play with them. I spent 40 minutes at lunchtime in the maternity ward with Chammomille and her quads. They are all so healthy. She is an awesome ewe. I stretched out on the hay and before long Chammy laid down beside me. Shortly thereafter three of the quads snuggled in between Chammy and myself. What a serene experience. I laid there listening to her chew her cud, the lambs soft breathing, the sounds of the farm all around me. I could have stayed there all day.

But.............I spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry, grinding away on paper work and made butter. I have two children with sinus issues, ear issues and allergies. As lovely as the spring weather has been, it brings it's issues with it as well.

I hope you are enjoying the weather where you are :)

Happy Easter ~

2010-04-04T06:36:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter to you and yours from all of us at Tylerfarm Homestead.

Today we will spend the day celebrating Resurrection and the gift of life. It is a joyous celebration as my family gathers around the dinner table, giving thanks together.

We have much to celebrate and to be grateful for. Our blessings are many!

~May your Easter be a day filled with joy and hope ~

Lambs by the dozen ~

2010-04-02T23:00:00.006-04:00

It's been a loooooooooong, crazy, fun, emotional, tiring week. We're lambing! I don't even know right this moment how many we have :) When they come in fours, you get a herd a time.

Before I hit the hay I wanted to share our set of quads with you all. Pictured above is Chammomille with Tylerfarm's Clary, Carlisle, Cecily & Cecil. Chammy is a shetland/finnn cross bred to a finn ram. All about the same weight, size, etc. Two ewes, two rams. They are all healthy with full bellies with tails wagging. Chammy delivered them all hind feet first but delivered them herself. She's an awesome ewe and mother.

I just finished making butter and now am off to bed. It's looking like we will have more lambs tomorrow. Just a few more ewes to go. I'll post photos of all the new babies soon.

Have a great weekend eveyrone :O )0

Lucky me ~

2010-03-30T16:56:00.003-04:00

To my WONDERFUL HUSBAND and my BEST FRIEND - thank you from the bottom of my heart for 19 magical, fabulous years together! We truly have accomplished so much, made many dreams come true and I would gladly do every minute of it all over again to be where we are now. Our blessings have been many and our disappointments have been few. I have always believed that together we can do anything.

I look forward to how ever many more wonderful years we are blessed with - I'm counting on at least 50 :)

Milley

Freida the Hussey

2010-03-29T19:55:00.013-04:00

This is the story of Freida the Hussey. She is a farm favorite but she truly did earn her name. She is the only ewe I have ever had or even heard of that actually broke into the ram pen! Freida came to us eight years ago. She needed a home in the middle of winter and as adamant as I was about no more sheep, they didn't have to twist my arm very hard before I relented and we brought her home.

She is a mix of Romney, Blue Hexam, Lincoln. Corriedale & Border Leicester. A true Maine mutt :) She weights about 165 lbs and gives us wonderful fleece every year. She's been Grandma to all the lambs each year and she wears the bell when the sheep are on pasture.

When she came to live with us we knew she had a big abdominal hernia. We never bred her as the Vet advised against it for Freida's well being because of it. She is now ten years old. One Sunday morning I went out to do chores alone and something looked off. After a minute or two of surveying the sheep pens I discovered lovely Freida in the ram pen having herself a good time. I was dumbfounded and stared in disbelief. I had been so careful with her all these years and a 10 minute romp just raised my stress level considerably. We watched her carefully - our vet said the only problem she may have is trouble pushing the lamb out through the birth canal due to the damaged muscle structure. We wanted to be sure we were there in case she needed help. Good thing - she definitely needed help but not the kind you think!

Tom went to the barn around lunchtime on Monday last week to just "check"on things and he calls and tells me I need to come quickly, "we have a problem". Sure enough, Freida has just delivered a black ewe lamb. She is showing no interest in getting up and no interest in the lamb. Tom and I helped her up, put the lamb next to her head and backed off to let her do the rest. Right!! She took one look at that lamb and headed for the hay feeder. Freida has always been guided by her love for food - this time was no different :) We jugged her with her lamb and tied her head in the corner. She had hay and water within reach but couldn't hurt the baby. She wouldn't let her nurse so I milked her colostrum and fed it to the ewe with a syringe several times over the next few hours. At the 10 p.m. feeding the lamb wasn't very hungry. I stepped outside and listened and I could here Freida talking to her a little. I decided to see if the mothering instinct would come to her. The next morning when I went to the barn, the ewe didn't want her bottle - she had been nursing and Freida was talking to her. I untied her head and she started licking her and caring for her. Hallelujah!!

Freida

Freida's ewe lamb, Betty Boop

Freida has become a wonderful Mother and is raising a lovely lamb, Betty Boop is a gift for sure. That being said, I will make sure Miss Freida does NOT get into the ram pen ever again!

Hitchin' Up ~

2010-03-26T16:52:00.010-04:00

This past Sunday, Tom & Tyler were fitted with their new harnesses. Not having been around drafts very often, I wasn't sure what to expect. My Dad did. These boys are 6 and 8 and are as gentle as any horse we've had. Tyler has been pulling wagons and sleighs for quite some time so it was old hat for him. Tom doesn't have that experience. For a young horse, he was awesome. You can brush them, crawl around them, hook this and hitch that and they stand right still. I was impressed.

Once everything was fitted correctly and Dad was comfortable, he asked them to walk on and away they went. No hesitation whatsoever. Tyler is all business. Head straight, ears forward, no fishing the bit, etc. Tom on the other hand was a little more interested in looking around, checking things out. After a few laps around the field, he settled in and was doing great. They looked like they had been a "team" always.They both know what whoa means and rest easy on a loose rein. I held the lines to have my photo taken with them. You can feel the strength of these two just holding them. Not sure I'd want to drive them at this point. It wouldn't take much for them to drag me through the mud, which we have plenty of right now. It would be a good laugh for everyone watching :)

Aren't they handsome? The black and red looks great on them. I love all the silver on these harnesses. I can remember as a little kid, sitting in the barn doorway polishing silver on harnesses or a saddle for hours. It was so satisfying to enter the parade in town and everything shined!

Even though they were purchased separately, they look very much alike. They are almost the same height. Tyler has a bigger butt than Tom but I think that may change eventually. I'm not sure if either of them have ever been ridden but I think that would be a cushy ride atop of these fellows.

These boys will be giving carriage rides through beautiful Acadia National Park in Maine for the summer season. If you have the chance to visit, ask for Tom and Tyler and the "Old Cowboy" you will be happy you did :)

Goat kids ~

2010-03-22T21:46:00.007-04:00

Super sized Mama is doing fine and is back to her normal routine. I simply couldn't believe that she only had twins. She had a very normal delivery and delivered the afterbirth shortly after delivering her last kid. She still looks like a wide load sign would fit on her butt! You just never know with these goats. Her babies were about 4lbs, average size for our does.

This little beauty is Minnie. Isn't that a gorgeous color? This is the first we have ever had of this color. She's perfect.
........and this is sweet little Daisy. She wasn't strong from the start. I milked the doe and fed her colostrum several times and she nursed from the doe tentatively a time or two. By early this morning she was chilled so I brought her in and made a tent in front of the woodstove and warmed her up with the hairdryer. I gave her electrolytes and more colostrum but she just wasn't strong enough. She passed away about 4 this afternoon. It was very peaceful and I don't believe she suffered. It's always terribly sad to lose a baby but I'd rather she is at peace than being ill and suffering.

It's been a long day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a happier one.

Next chance I have to post, I'll tell you the story of Freida, the 10 year old ewe who broke INTO the ram pen and how that worked out for her :)

Super sized goat update:

2010-03-21T19:42:00.002-04:00

A quick update: Lace delivered twin doelings about 11:30 this morning. I waited and waited, knowing there had to be MORE babies in there but once she passed the afterbirth, I knew she was finished.

She looks like she still have twins in there!! I think my goats are either really, really fat or have really distended rumens :)

Minnie is a beautiful corduroy brown color and Daisy is white. I'll post photos tomorrow if I can get them without getting my camera soaked. We are in for 3 days of rain again.

One more goat to deliver before lambing begins in full force. Love those babies!

Super sized goat!

2010-03-18T08:45:00.005-04:00

How many do you think are in there? I'm not sure what she's waiting for - she seriously looks like she is going to pop! When she squats to pee she touches the ground. It's really funny to watch her waddle around. Getting up and down is a struggle for sure. Her tail ligaments are very loose and have been for awhile. I expect to find kids every morning when I get to the barn for chores. She will surprise us one of these days :)

The weather here in the northeast has been gorgeous! 65 degrees yesterday - we could hit 70 on Saturday. Shearing continues :) Have a great day everyone.

Lessons learned on the farm............

2010-03-16T21:21:00.005-04:00

This is Molly - the new cow we brought home last Monday. It seems we have finally filled her up and she's beginning to gain weight. Annie, her little heifer calf is also growing and seems to have adjusted to her new surroundings. I had planned on moving Molly out with company today after the vet came to check her out. I'm very sad to say that Molly isn't healthy and will be leaving the farm. She has a condition called Lump jaw which is a bone infection of the jaw. By the time cattle have outward signs, the jaw deterioration isn't likely reversible and death is inevitable either by losing condition because a cow cannot eat or the jaw bone can deteriorate to the point where it will actually break. I had never heard of this before - I'm sure I"ll never forget it now. It's definitely a lesson learned and a sad one. She's really a kind, gentle cow and I was getting attached to her already. We will keep her calf and hopefully she will grow into a beautiful cow like her Mom and live a healthy, productive life on our farm.

Road trip..........

2010-03-10T19:43:00.016-05:00

This is a view of Mt. Washington as we drove by on our way to Northern Vermont on Monday morning. Dad and I traveled with my Uncle and his girlfriend to a large farm in Barton, VT to deliver a draft horse, pick up a draft horse and a cow and calf.

This is the view from the farm in VT, looking towards Canada. This was an incredible 180 degree view. It was a beautiful, clear day and you could see for miles. The entire trip took about 9 hours from start to finish.

The folks at the farm had a variety of animals. They had many sows and many litters of piglets. They are just adorable!!
Very photogenic :) I am getting so anxious for Charlotte to have her babies - we have a while to go but imagine cuddling one of these little creatures......
This little guy has the markings of a wild hog. These marking help to camouflage them in the wild. Handsome isn't he? They had dozens of them in every shape, size & color. They were very happy to answer my questions about sows, baby pigs and farrowing pens (where Charlotte will have her babies).

The main reason for the trip was to swap around a couple of Belgium draft horses. Tom, the first draft I posted about awhile back, has gone to live at this farm and the horse on the left, who will now be called Tom has come to live here. The horse on the right, Tyler is his mate that my Dad brought home last week.

Tom, Dad & Tyler

These two are very well behaved, very well matched and get along great. They are also very comfortable around people. The first Tom we had wasn't all that eager to work double nor was he all that eager to make friends. That doesn't work so well when you have to work side by side with another horse all summer long in a public environment. All in all, a good solution for everyone. Now they have to be worked in harness everyday to get in shape for a summer of carriage work at Acadia National Park.

My Dad had told me that this farmer had a cow and with a calf that he wanted to sell and that the price was right. So..............well, I guess you can figure out the rest :)

This is Molly and her one month old heifer calf, Annie. The farmer believes she is a shorthorn cross. She appears to have a beefy type build and so does her calf. I'll know more when she gets her new hair coat and sheds a few manure tags. She has hard a pretty tough winter and needs a couple of weeks to just eat, relax and chew her cud. I've got her quarantined until we have a vet check. This will give her plenty of time to eat her fill and regain some of the weight she needs before she meet the other cattle here. The calf is in great shape. It's pretty obvious that all Molly was getting was going right to her calf. She has a good temperament and I think she will fit in just right around here :)

New products in our Farm Store ~

2010-03-06T19:04:00.010-05:00

Spring seems to be arriving early here in the Northeast. Our snow is just about melted and even the mud is drying up quickly. I imagine we will see another snow storm or two but nothing that will stay for long. Fifty degree temps make it easy to work outside and spring work is underway. Our ewes have big bellies and lambs are due in the next week or two. Two more goats are due to kid any day now. Sarge & Beetle Bailey will be two weeks old tomorrow.

They will use anyone or anything for a jungle gym, including me :) I cherish the few minutes I can squeeze out each day to sit and play with them. I absolutely love my life on the farm and all that goes on here but I miss having time to enjoy each and every baby that comes along. Before long, these little goats will be out in population and playing with the big goats and won't pay any attention to me unless I have a snack in my pocket!

Good weather brings more customers into our Farm store weekly. Everyone agrees the warmer temps makes shopping a much more pleasant errand to do. We have new handcrafted items for sale that I haven't put on the website yet so thought I would share them here.

Horse shoes have always been in abundance around here, old and new and have added up quickly over the years. We now have several Western Art theme gifts in our shop.

Horse shoe lamps in two sizes. The first is made with pony size shoes, the lower lamp with saddle horse size shoes. Each lamp is handcrafted and no two lamps are exactly the same. All lamps come with a rust free finish and a no slip base.

I love the great business card holders and quickly made use of one on my counter in the store.

These make great gifts for the business person in your life. They hold approximately 40 cards at a time and stay where you put them.

And for a little fun, a horse shoe brain teaser. Yes, there is a way to get the silver ring off the chain in the center of the shoes :)

We have a dozen more ideas in this Western Art department and hope to have several more items in stock before too long. Stay tuned ~

Have a great sunday ~

Spa Knit & Spin 2010

2010-03-02T20:12:00.015-05:00

I am very fortunate to be part of a team that organizes an event in Freeport, Maine called the Spa Knit & Spin. This is the 8th year that people from all over New England and beyond have gathered together from Friday through Sunday to enjoy each other's company, inspire each other, ooooh and aaaah over each other's creativity, and SHOP! What better way to drive out the winter blues?

We take over three hotels, and have a fabulous Vendor Mercantile. Twenty three awesome vendors with booths full of beautiful hand dyed rovings and yarns of sheep wool, angora, mohair, cashmere, bamboo, yak, etc., quilting fabric, handspun/handknit items, spinning wheels; hand turned needles and crochet hooks, etc. It's a fiber addicts paradise and if you were new to all of this when you arrived, you were hooked by the time you went home! I came home with several fiber goodies and certainly feel inspired and encouraged with several ideas in mind.

Roving in every color and so many different blends of wool and other fibers.

Intense color everywhere! It was so difficult to stick to a budget and not just go wild :) I purchased a spinning book called "Spin Control" from the author, Amy King. I have my autographed copy and am enjoying learning more about how to better use my wheel and my fiber . If you are a spinner, it's a must for your library.

Sock yarn anyone? Could you pick just one color?!

This great little hand bag was just calling my name. I fell in love with the fabric - and I can relate to these sheep. lol... The vendor had straight and circular needle cases in this same fabric as well as knitting bags. They are all handmade and they were selling quickly.

I try to make something special each year to wear to Spa from my own animals. This year I made a scarf out of my pygora fiber. It was from Rudy, one of my gray pygora wethers and I overdyed it with burgundy. It is elegantly soft and I loved wearing it.

I know many, many people went home with full hearts and stash bags, me included, looking ahead to Spa Knit & Spin 2011. Thanks to all who make this weekend possible each year!!!

Wordless Wednesday ~

2010-02-24T20:03:00.003-05:00

Spring has sprung!!

2010-02-22T16:04:00.013-05:00

We have been having a beautiful streak of weather here in the Northeast. Balmy days of blue skies, sunshine and temps in the 40's. Mud has appeared which is always a sure sign of spring. We had a small snowstorm a few days ago but that's it for an entire month! I'm ready for dirt and gardens and babies :)

My cousin Jacob is visiting us while on break from school this week. He is here as often as he can be on school vacations and usually helps with the baby lambs on April vacation. We bred earlier this year and he was bummed that the lambs would all be here before he returns. No baby animals for Jake this year - or so he thought :)

Two of our does have been bagging up for a week or so and I've been watching the babies move slowly through the birth canal, positioning themselves. Ribbon's tail ligaments were very soft on saturday and birth is usually anytime at that point. Her milk bag was so full her tiny udders were sticking out sideways. I was napping through a headache yesterday afternoon when Tom came in and told me Jake and Ty had found baby goats!

Introducing Sarge (black) and Beetle Bailey (white) twin bucklings born to Ribbon (white pygora doe) and Amos (carmel angora buck). All I can say is sweet, sweet, sweet!

By the time I got out to the barn, both babies were up, dry and nursing. Mama goats are the best. I was so happy that we had babies for Jacob. He's been coming here for 13 years and hasn't once missed a baby season. We didn't want this to be the first.

"Sarge"

"Beetle Bailey"

We decided on cartoon characters for our name theme for the goats this year. Lace looks to be next. I'd like twin doelings this time. Stay tuned...........

Wordless wednesday ~

2010-02-17T06:40:00.002-05:00

Around the farm.......

2010-02-14T21:07:00.009-05:00

*Guineas keeping their feet warm*

We have been plagued with colds and flu for the last ten days. It seems one person gets over it and someone else comes down with it. With one person building schools, one in college and one in high school, it's no wonder these things keep getting passed around. The dry, hacking cough seems to take weeks to really go away. I've been very fortunate and haven't picked up these colds/flu. I've had a couple of severe migraines and have been to the DR twice. Hopefully changes in meds will diminish the severity of them and I won't have them so often. They sure can interfere with my job here.

Despite winter maladies, farming progresses. We had a first time heifer bred to a nice, red angus bull. I'm hoping she settled first time and if so, we should get a nice calf in November. I will re-breed our milk cow next month with the same bull we have used the last four years. That will give us another December calf. Coal continues to grow well. He was castrated last week and has gotten over missing his Mother. That being said, he really, really looks forward to his bottle :)

Our pygora goats are starting to build milk bags and have large, round bellies. Kidding should start around the first of March. We have three bred does this year. These gals have always kidded with ease so I don't expect any problems. It will be fun to have kids again. They have such fun personalities :)

We are slowly putting together our seed order. We have decided to order exclusively from Johnny's seeds this year. They are a local company. They field test right here in Maine. They have a terrific web site, face book page and a great staff who are always willing to answer questions or discuss anything about their products. The are competitively priced and I can pick up my order if I have the time. It doesn't get much better than that. For me, seed ordering is like pouring through a Christmas catalog. It takes awhile :)

~Wishing everyone a productive, healthy week ~

Critters: Move em' in - Move em' out......

2010-02-05T14:53:00.004-05:00

This is Tom. Tom moved in last Thursday. Tom is a Belgian draft who is 1/2 of the team that, along with my Dad, will pull a carriage full of folks through beautiful Arcadia National Park in Maine this spring, summer & fall. He's a gentle giant who has made himself right at home.

He has buddied up with Bear, leaving Simple Boy with his nose slightly out of joint. It will be just a few days and all three will be eating at the feeder together :)

Tom loves attention and we had a chance to get to know each other yesterday for a bit while I was out with the camera. He weighs about 1750 lbs and is about 17.2 hands tall. A nice addition to the farm :)

.....and this is Gus. Gus came to live on the farm in January of 2009 as a stall mate for Gert. Also to feed some of the excess milk we had. We had thought to raise him for beef - we have raised Holstein beef before and love it but this time it didn't turn out that way. It turned out better for Gus. He's a year old and is a nice sized steer. He's gone to a new home where he will be a mate for a steer that looks just like him. They will be yoked together and will be driven by a young girl. No freezer for Gus :)

That's the way life is on our farm.....you never know what's going to change from one day to the next. No one can ever complain that it's boring!

More 2010 New Moon

2010-02-01T21:03:00.010-05:00

I was really fascinated by the first new moon of the year. The moon on the night before and after was also full and so bright. I ventured out each night in the cold to try and capture the beauty with the camera. I wanted to share a few more with you:

I'm still learning to use the new zoom lens that hubby gave me for Christmas and this was great practice. I need lots of practice. Heck, I'm still learning to use the camera he gave me last Christmas! I wish learning everything was so much fun :) Enjoy ~

Good bye January ~

2010-01-30T15:27:00.010-05:00

I'm happy to be wrapping up another month of winter. Hopefully February will be a little warmer. I wouldn't mind having more snow if it meant we did not have the bone chilling cold we have had the last few days. And the wind........40 to 50 mph gusts yesterday with temps in the teens. You know it's cold around here when the fat woollies *I mean the sheep* don't want to leave the barn. Tub heaters and heat tapes have certainly been working overtime. It's not so windy today but it's about 6. Warm by some standards but cold for us :)

Our girlie's are growing and are as sweet as can be. They both needed a bigger coat. Demmy has the yellow and Annabelle has the light gray. Demmy's coat is a fashionable coat for a Pomeranian dog that my Mom gave me. What a perfect lamb coat. I'm going to look for a few more of these in my travels. Annabelle got the sweatshirt sleeve as the is the smaller of the two. They grew out of their first ones quickly. I'm so reluctant to take them off of them with this bitter cold. Hopefully next week or I'll need to come up with something bigger .

We had a big moon last night - a pretty good indication that it was going to be darn cold. Tonight is the biggest full moon of 2010. Mars is supposed to be bright as well and will be to the left of the moon. I snapped these photos last night as the moon was rising during chore time. If I'm not frozen, I'd like to get a few this evening also.

We have been busy this week getting new items ready for the farm market. We added regular Friday hours to our farm market/shop starting yesterday. We had hand churned butter, butter milk, and fresh mozzarella this week along with our regular products. A steady supply of customers and all the goodies were gone by Friday evening. Will have to make double the amount this week. We are hoping to have yogurt and cream cheese before long. We are out of lamb right now but that should change within the next week or two.

In my spare time I've been looking at my new Johnny's and Fedco seed catalogs. We are paring down a bit on the variety of veggies that we are going to plant, leaving more room for what we really like, what grows and stores well and what our customers like. Hopefully this will work out better for us. It really isn't that long before we can think about planting :)

Dizzy, Annabelle & Demmy

2010-01-25T14:51:00.004-05:00

This is Dizzy with Annabelle and Demeter. You wouldn't know these little gals were born on a cold day in January. They are healthy and happy and bouncing around the jug and already look forward to a human friend to spend time with them cuddling. We are happy to oblige when we can :)

Dizzy is a finn sheep. We raise finn as well as the shetland breed. I had planned on breeding Dizzy to Mr. Finn, our finn ram, who I put in with the ewes in late October. Tom and I have been looking back through our records, trying to establish the Papa of these two cuties. At first we thought it was a shetland ram lamb that had a retained testicle. We have now determined that it was in fact Mr. Finn that did breed Dizzy back in August. He managed to break out of his paddock a couple of times and I thought nothing of it at the time. Often times shetland and finn ewes will not start cycling until the cooler weather of the fall months. Obviously, Dizzy had other ideas :) I'm very happy with the outcome of this mating and very lucky as well.

Sweet little Annabelle runs to the fence panel when she hears us come in to the barn. Who could resist that face?

Our other baby, Coal, is growing in leaps and bounds as well. He has been weaned from his Mom and now has a bottle twice per day of Mom's milk along with all the good grass hay he can eat. He is always ready for his bottle :) A couple of readers have asked me why I didn't teach him drink out of a bucket instead of bottle feeding him. I have been taught over the years that sucking on a bottle produces saliva which helps with a calf's digestion. It has always worked well for the calves we have raised. I figure if it ain't' broke, I won't try and fix it.

Once he gets on that bottle, he doesn't stop until it's gone!

The heavy rains that tormented the West coast have arrived on the East coast and are soaking us in good shape. All our plowed surfaces are turning to sheets of ice. It's 45 degrees so all of our snow is melting as well. When the temps return to normal and are cold on Wednesday, it's going to be a nightmare around here. That's January weather for you. Stay safe and dry out there.

Never a dull moment.....

2010-01-21T20:38:00.005-05:00

Meet Annabelle & Demeter (we will call her Demmy). These sweet little gals greeted Tom as he went to hay the ewes at morning chores. Great way to start the day wouldn't you say? :)

Each of them weighed about 2 lbs and were born about 5:30 am. Both were dry and walking when we got to the barn. Both had nursed but I wasn't sure how much either of them had gotten. The smaller one, Annabelle, was shivering and not quite as active as Demeter.

We made a jug for them in the main barn where it is much warmer. After moving them into the jug, we gave the ewe a pail of warm molasses water to boost her energy level and she drank the entire 2 1/2 gallons. Labor and delivery is hard work!! I milked colostrum into a small syringe and made sure each lamb got about 6cc's. They also got 4cc's each of warm sheep nutri-drench. I made them each a coat from the sleeves of a polar fleece pullover. Both warmed up quickly and were up and nursing on Mom before long. They continued to do well all day long and I think both will be fine :)

This ewe has been bagged up for awhile now. I'm a fairly good record keeper but I'm still not exactly sure how she could have been bred before our main ram was turned in with the ewes in October. I did have a ram LAMB that had a retained testicle. I didn't think it was possible but I guess anything is possible in the animal kingdom.

Oh, in case you were wondering about their names - Mythology is our theme for names this year. Annabelle was the Goddess of flowers, gardens & marshes and Demeter was the Goddess of the Harvest.

They have had lots of hugs and cuddles today - I can't wait to get back out there tomorrow :)

Coal..........

2010-01-18T20:27:00.006-05:00

Our December calf, Coal, was a month old on January 10th. He's healthy and growing well and I'm pleased with his progress. This calf has added weight quicker than the last two calves from this cow/bull combination. I expected him to be blockier as the last two calves were heifers and were built more like the cow. This calf is definitely built more like the bull.

I weaned him off the cow today and started him on the cow's milk with a bottle. He wasn't happy about that but he was getting pretty rough on the cow's bag. He's eating hay and drinking water and will get the cow's milk until he's six months old. The cow was happy to be outside all day, eating on the round bale whenever she felt like it. She filled the milking machine tonight :)

We clean the calf out in the morning while the cow is being milked. Coal enjoys the attention ~ what he really enjoys is getting a fresh bag of shavings. He makes a game out of it. Tom put the bag in yesterday and before he could open it, Coal was pushing it around with his head. Before long it was open and he was spreading them all around the stall with his head :) He spins and twirls and gets them all over himself. It's so much fun to watch - he feels so good and seems such a happy little creature.

He was more than happy to offer a smooch when he was finished with his game :) Once the weather moderates a little, we will put him out for a while during the day with the ewes in their yard by the barn. He's been introduced to the halter ~ he was a little big for the calf halter and a little small for the yearling halter. Once we find one to fit we will start halter training him.

Another twelve inches of snow landed here today. We spent the entire day moving it and cleaning up after the storm. All I can say is thank GOD for our tractor/snow blower. We would be shoveling for three days to get it all moved. We exceeded the snow total for last January's totals. Another half of foot expected tomorrow. Turning out to be a snowy new year!

A quiet January

2010-01-11T15:03:00.008-05:00

January is the month of purging and preparation. I spend a good portion of the month doing year end paperwork and taxes. I'm always glad when it's done and behind me. Once that's done, I can focus on more interesting plans.

It's been very cold and outdoor work other than chores and maintenance is limited. The animals adjust gradually as the months get colder and I'm pleased with the way all are doing.

Our does are woolly and showing their baby bumps. Kids are due in early March.

The ewes are adding a little weight and bellies are starting to get slightly rounder as lambing approaches the end of March. We do have one ewe that has me completely perplexed regarding her due date.
I brought this ewe home July 22nd. She was exposed to my ram October 28 and he was with the ewes until 12/30/09. She should be due at the earliest 3/18/10. She's bagged up and starting to get soft behind. If she was exposed to a ram before she left home, she would have lambed by now. I had no ram escapes that I'm aware of.......the ewes did have access to pasture where it was necessary for them to travel past the ram yard everyday. Not sure how they worked that out but something definitely happened :) I have a good idea lambs are immanent. I just hope it was the right ram.

Mr. & Mrs. Pig were outside this morning, getting their exercise. He's completely at home here and very easy to manage. He doesn't really want to be petted but he doesn't run away either.

They really liked running and playing in the snow. They would push their snouts in it and make a furrow for a few inches and then jump and run and play some more.

Charlotte will definitely miss him when it's time for him to go home. She can see the cows on the other side of the fence when she's outside as well as the rams so she's not really alone. I'll probably keep one of her litter so she's not alone once they are weaned.

......and these two obviously have the toughest jobs on the farm. Such a life!

Wake up America.........

2010-01-07T08:40:00.003-05:00

Warning: Disgusting meat post ahead..........

A friend of mine brought a New York Times article to my attention. I don't go digging around for this stuff. It sickens me - what we, the people, in this country don't know really WILL hurt us. I don't understand how major companies can get away with this type of blatant crap. I promise you, you will never look at a hamburger that you didn't raise or buy from someone you know ever again. We have got to start taking more control over what we eat.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-05-cheap-food-ammonia-burgers

Friendship and Flowers......

2010-01-06T21:42:00.006-05:00

It's January. It's cold and snowy outside. But there is green on the inside - my jasmine plant is blossoming again. There is really no rhyme or reason when or how often it blooms. It took me quite some time to find just the right spot for this plant when we moved into our new home. Once you find just that spot, the plant requires very little care. It is slow to grow, with perhaps one new leaf cluster per year.

When the buds appear, they grow quickly and go from this stage to blossom stage in a matter of 24 hours or so.

Once it reaches this stage, it permeates my house with the most fragrant odor. I wish I could make this a scratch-n-sniff blog so you all could experience the wonderful fragrance from this plant :) The plant has three open blossoms tonight and one bud. The open blossoms will have dropped off by morning.

My jasmine plant was a gift several years ago from a dear friend that I admire very much. We do not see as often as we would like but I think of her often and my jasmine plant is a lovely reminder of our friendship and how much she means to me.

Charlotte's got a beau.........

2010-01-05T08:30:00.006-05:00

This is Charlotte's beau, Mr. Pig. He is on loan to us from a neighbor's farm and moved in with Charlotte last Thursday. He seems quite happy with his new living arrangements and seems to like Charlotte just fine. SHE wasn't to sure about him in the beginning, but has decided he's not so bad.

He loves her bed....I imagine it's quite cushy compared to where he lives. She has warmed up to him in the last few days and if yesterday's breeding was successful, we should have piglets around 4/1/10. Gestation is approximately 114 days. We will keep him another month just to make sure she is bred. He's very respectful of humans and waits patiently for his feed unlike his bunkmate. She's a hog in every sense of the word :) This is our first experience raising pigs and I wasn't sure what to expect having a boar around. He definitely has a unique odor but it's not offensive. You can tell when you open the barn door that their is an unfamiliar smell. He's not loud and it's really been very simple. We will keep our fingers crossed that the rest of the process goes as well.

Speaking of swine, my Dad gave me this cute little piggy calendar for Christmas. Below is January's cover pig.

A face anybody could love :)

Happy 2010 ~~

2010-01-01T15:46:00.005-05:00

2010 arrived very quietly here in our neck of New England. I think we were in bed by 9:30. We get up early and it's been a busy few days. The snow started yesterday about noon and it's been snowing on and off since then. It's so peaceful today - toasty woodstoves, all the animals snugged up, generator is ready should we lose power. Let it snow!

One of my goals for the new year was to create a website for the farm. I'm not super computer savvy and I needed something that wouldn't frustrate me to the point I'd give up. I've played that game a time or two. I found I-page today. Really, really easy to use. Very beginner friendly and inexpensive.

Our new page is http://www.tylerfarmhomestead.com I am so excited. I worked on this all day and published it about 10 minutes ago. It's bare bones right now but I'll post more photos and content, especially what's in the shop tomorrow. I'm tired. It's really easier doing barn chores all day than it is to set at this computer!

If you have a chance to take a look, please let me know what you think. Your comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

~Have a great weekend~

A frosty start to the day.......

2009-12-29T21:22:00.005-05:00

We had a few inches of snow overnight and this morning the wind started to blow. The snow was heavy and the trees were completely coated. It was a beautiful sight as the sun started to rise. As the day progressed the wind increased and by afternoon the temperature had dropped 20 degrees. It's supposed to drop to zero tonight with a -30 windchill.

The weather folks are predicting a Nor'easter for us starting late Thursday. So far the predictions are that we will be measuring the snow in feet, not inches. The snow is supposed to last into Sunday with blizzard conditions predicted anytime during the storm. Of course, much could change between now and then but being prepared is a good thing.

We headed for chores this morning, making a list as we went of all the things we needed to check and accomplish prior to the storm. We spent the day making sure all the barns are nicely bedded, clearing anything in the snow blower's path, cleaned the chicken house, etc.

We will make trip to town tomorrow to stock up on low supplies and fuel. Border's Bookstore is a definite stop as we all received gift cards for Christmas. May need a good book for the weekend :)

Looking back and moving forward.......

2009-12-27T09:39:00.013-05:00

{ My new Sheep Christmas stocking - hubby found it at Tractor supply...I love that store}

As the Christmas holiday winds down, I am always happy for a few "slow" days to relax a little, knit a little by the fire (finishing gifts that didn't get done on time ) and spend some time reflecting on the year that we are about to bring to a close and the new year ahead. It's hard to believe 2009 is almost over. Where did a year go?!

2009 brought about several changes for us on the farm. Our blessings have been many and I never take that for granted. The opening of our farm shop has been a terrific outlet for our farm goods and also for meeting many of our neighbors and making new friends. A big "Thank you" to everyone who shops with us. Your support is so appreciated. Because the shop isn't heated this winter, I am going to create a page for the shop and link to it from the blog. I hope to have that done in the next week or so. I have several new items along with our normally stocked goods. We are happy to ship anything mail order other than eggs and milk. Delivery arrangements are also available.

Another beef recall by National Steak and Poultry has solidified our decision to try our hand raising Heritage breed turkeys this coming year. We will start small with just a dozen and go from there. We have yet to decide which particular breed or breeds we will introduce to the farm. Hubby is leaning toward the Bourbon Reds. We saw these big birds up close and personal at a friends farm a few years back. The Tom was impressive and friendly! Visit Robin's blog for great info on raising these birds.

I love the look of the Narragansett. There are several more Heritage breeds and the American Livestock Breed Conservancy (http://www.albc-usa.org/) is a great website full of information on these turkeys.

I have read that the heritage breeds need a longer life span to achieve the same weight gain as the big white turkeys that commercial breeders raise but the final product is 100% better and well worth the wait. Our turkeys will be able to free range on the farm daily and have a varied natural diet as well as free choice supplements. Hopefully we will have varied weights that will be processed in November to suit our all our customers. We are anxious to get started once we iron out all the final details :)

I hope you are all having the chance to relax a bit with your loved ones and continue to enjoy the time of year :)

Merry Christmas to you.....

2009-12-24T17:43:00.005-05:00

~All of us at Tylerfarm wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas ~

An enormous Equine post.....literally!

2009-12-21T17:17:00.008-05:00

This is my Dad, Dave, and his new working partner, Zues. Just a little fella isn't he? !! My Dad is a teamster. A real one. He comes from a long line of teamsters and horse people. He started driving team in the woods when he was a young lad and has worked with horses his entire life. Their isn't much has hasn't done with a horse and there have been many of them in and out of his life just since I can remember. Some have left a lasting impression, others not so much. This guy we certainly won't forget!

Dad drive's a team of beautiful draft horses giving carriage rides in picturesque Acadia National Park in Maine in the summer and is giving sleigh rides at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, NH this winter. Zues is used in a one horse sleigh and obviously has no trouble pulling it around. Imagine the look on the faces of the guests waiting for a ride when this giant comes walking out of the barn. I know I just stared at the photo for 6o seconds.....it's almost unbelievable for a split second.

Zues weighs approximately 3100 lbs. He is 7 years old and approximately 96" tall at the top of his withers (shoulders). He is very gentle and loves people. He's calm and easy to work with. It's a darn good thing - imagine trying to change this guys mind?! According to the people in the know, he is the biggest horse in the USA at the moment. He had his front feet trimmed and new shoes put on yesterday and will have his back ones done the end of the week. His shoes must weigh 5lbs a piece. I know his feet are the size of dinner plates.

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him in person yet, but the family has plans to take a trip to the mountain and enjoy a sleigh ride. If you get the opportunity to visit beautiful NH, plan a trip to take a sleigh ride and meet this team, you won't be disappointed :)

Farm kid brag post....

2009-12-19T08:33:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned in my photo op post, our youngest farm kid, Tyler, has been studying Karate for a couple of years now. Last night he tested for and achieved the rank of advanced green belt. This is a big step and he was nervous and excited. This advancement means he goes from a non-contact sport to full contact.

He has been sparring in full gear with a partner in class for sometime now. The Sensai would stand between them and give points for moves and make sure contact did not happen. That will all be different now. He is really looking forward to being able to practice what he has learned so far and continuing his karate education. Tyler has worked very hard and we are very PROUD of him.

Tyler and his Sensai after achieving the rank of Green Belt

CONGRATULATIONS TYLER on a job well done!

Back in business.....

2009-12-16T22:08:00.009-05:00

Our newborn calf, Coal, is thriving thanks to his fantastic Mom. He's round and perky and quite sassy. I was cleaning out their stall this morning, working around him and he tried to kick me! He's very inquisitive and he met the dogs today. Dan didn't pay much attention. Otis, our new pup, wasn't sure what to make of him. Both were quite wary of each other.

We are thankful to be back in the milking business. The 65 days our cow is dry before giving birth is difficult on our family. We are used to fresh, pure, raw whole milk. We are big milk drinkers but that changes for those 65 days. I do buy milk at the grocery store but we consume much less until miking begins again. As always, Jan has plenty of milk for Coal and our family.

I use an old fashioned surge milking machine to milk my cow. All of my equiptment sits on the end of my kitchen island after being washed in between milkings. As much as I would love to milk by hand, my thumbs do not work well enough to allow me to. When I first got a my cow, I did milk by hand. I loved setting on my little wooden milking stool that my Dad made for me, listening to the milk hit the bucket. Plink, plink. Plink, plink. Once you get the rhythm, it's almost mesmerizing. Cows smell good and they are always warm. I would lean my head against her flank and get quite comfortable. Unfortunately I couldn't get my thumbs in shape and it was taking me way to long to milk her out. The milking machine takes about 5 minutes and we have a routine that we strictly adhere to and it works well for both the cow and I.

I carry my machine and a bucket of warm, wash water to the barn at chore time each day. I give her milk bag a nice warm water bath, dry her off and put on the machine. It's all a piece of cake for her. I pour my milk into my milk can when finished. Share what milk is leftover with Charlotte and the chickens and then come in to get that milk strained and into the refrigerator. Then it's time to do milk dishes again. Hot, steamy water and a special dairy soap to cleanse and disinfect. It air dries on a clean towel, ready for the next chore time.

It won't be long now before we will be making butter and Ice cream again and my favorite, fresh whipped cream :)

A Christmas photo op........

2009-12-12T19:18:00.011-05:00

I wanted to do a photo card to send this year, especially for friends and family that we catch up with once a year. I take so many photos of the farm and the animals and I was having a difficult time trying to decide on just the right one.

Our youngest son Ty is a freshman and spends most of his off school time doing homework. He is an honor student and enjoys school but doing well requires much of his time. He is also studying Karate and has to practice everyday after school. He doesn't often come to the barn during the week unless he has a specific purpose. One day last week he visited the animals and spent a little quality time with the donkey. Donkey was more than happy to "chat" awhile and he's ALWAYS happy to pose for the camera :) I was going through the photos the next day and found the perfect photo:

We don't realize how much he has grown and changed in a year but other's that haven't seen him certainly will. He's very fond of Donkey. When I think about it I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't love that darn Donkey :)

~Happy Holidays~

It's a Boy!!

2009-12-11T11:46:00.005-05:00

Our sweet milk cow delivered this healthy little bull calf around 5:30 a.m. "Jan's Christmas Coal" was up and eating when I arrived in the barn. What an awesome little fellow he is. Healthy, fat and sassy. I checked on her last night about 9:30 p.m. before bed and she was uncomfortable and her breathing was labored. I was still delightedly surprised when I opened the door. It never gets old - being greeted buy a sweet, adorable face like his :)

This is the most awesome, dependable cow. She has the sweetest disposition and passes this on to her offspring She's wonderfully attentive to her calf and had him cleaned up and he was nursing by the time I arrived in the barn. For the past three years she has delivered beautiful heifers. This year I really wanted a bull. I want to raise him, monitoring his growth monthly to see what his gain is each month until he reaches two years old. The heifers grow nicely. I think this guy will do even better as we will castrate him and raise him as a steer. This year I have two cows to breed and next year we will have two babies on the farm :) Life is good!

Winter on the farm..........

2009-12-09T14:31:00.008-05:00

This is the view from my kitchen window. I personally think it's gorgeous. Winter in New England. I wait all year for this! Our first big storm roared in about 7 this morning and it's been blowing and snowing ever since. We have about 8 inches and it's supposed to change to freezing rain later this afternoon.

All the animals that want to be are tucked in the barn, all cozy and dry. Jan, our pregnant cow, is relaxing in her stall, chewing her cud and showing small signs of labor. Hopefully tonight we will have a new baby calf :)

Of course there are always that few who defy logic and stand out in the storm. Not sure why but these gals either really, really love snow or are just being the defiant bunch.

The junco have arrived and seem to be the only birds at the feeders today. They hide under the evergreens and then make a run for the feeder on my Mom's porch when they think no one is watching.

Otis has never seen snow before. We had an inch or so the other day and he had a grand time learning what to do with that powdery white stuff! Rolling in it seems to be the best. Today he is really overwhelmed. It's as deep as his legs are long.

It's a good life!

It won't be long now.......

2009-12-07T17:48:00.006-05:00

Jan's milk bag is filling up quickly - baby any day now!

December snow..........finally :)

2009-12-05T21:46:00.009-05:00

I am one happy gal! We are getting our first real snowfall of the season. About 3 inches have accumulated so far. Everything looks beautiful and it feels more like December than June. Thursday is was 67 degrees here! The weather is as crazy as is the rest of the world.

It was snowing steadily while we did evening chores. The sheep were romping and jumping and having a great time. The dogs were doing the same. This is the first time Otis has seen snow. He really didn't know quite what to make of it. He and Danny were chasing a stick and he couldn't keep his feet underneath him :) It was lots of fun to watch them.

I know this snow won't last but it's much easier to get into the Christmas spirit with snow on the ground! Besides..........I simply like it :)

Another blow for America's small farms........

2009-12-03T07:34:00.004-05:00

We are considered a "small" farm. It used to be that there were thousands of small farms in this country that provided tons of essential and valuable products to the people in this country. It's no secret that the small farmers are being forced out of business at an alarming rate.

We have three generations that live and work on this farm. We strive to provide the best product that we can on a small scale to the public. We are diversified in our offerings and with just two of us working full time on the farm, we put in long days and love it. We stand behind everything we sell and keep it affordable so our neighbors can support our business as we support our neighbors. We are always willing to barter and feel that keeping our money in our own state benefits all of us.

Obviously this is not the case by the folks with investment capital and "important status" in our fair state. In the Sunday paper, a large company had a three page layout dedicated to their newest venture. They have decided that they would like to sell woolen long underwear. Nothing wrong with that right? They are not sheep farmers or farmers at all so they had to hire someone to find them a farm. Not one but two farms purchased in one of the most expensive towns in the state. Next they needed sheep. So they hired someone to manage their new sheep farm and find them the right breed of sheep. None of the needed breed raised here so they had to be imported. Many of them - a herd of close to 500 before they are through. The sheep manager will care for them. That herd will not provide enough wool for this venture so they hired a buyer to find them wool which will be purchased out of state for a total of somewhere around 200,000 lbs! This wool will be processed in South Carolina. It will be made into fabric in Massachusetts. The long underwear tops and pants will run your average, everyday working man between $45 and $90 per piece. Affordable right? WRONG!!! At least not on my meager budget.

I cannot be the only one who finds something terribly wrong with this scenario. There are hundreds of small sheep farms in this state struggling to make a living, cutting corners and costs everywhere they can just to stay afloat. This company could have made woolen underwear from wool grown in this state, processed in this state and sold at a "reasonable" price so people in this state could afford to purchase it! I know why this didn't happen, they simply wouldn't make as much money and it would have cost them more. It's always about the money isn't it?

Hooray for folks with a million dollars to invest in a "I'm not ready to retire" project. It just seems like with the state of our economy they could have done something more to help support the state and the folks that live here and supported their first fledgling business all these years.

I'm going out to shovel what I read in the paper.....

Happy December....

2009-12-01T14:01:00.008-05:00

December is normally a good month for us on the farm. I'm hoping this year will be no exception. The weather definitely has been in our favor! We always have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and use the extra time of having everyone home to finish up most of our pre-winter projects. We did just that this year. Steve was actually home the entire week and we completed quite a list.

Our cow tie up is finished and now in use. After just a couple of days the cows know which stanchion is theirs and go to their own space at night for their treat of grain. It is so much warmer in the barn in the morning and the smell is wonderful (if you love cows like I do :) Cows give off an incredible amount of heat especially when they are all close together. They all seem comfortable and I like knowing they are all in the barn at night.

Our milking cow, Jan, chose the stanchion to the right, which is directly to the left of our milking stall. Couldn't have worked out better. She is VERY pregnant and due to have her calf on/around December 9th. We measured her with a tape the other night. She is 9 feet around!! I am, as always at calving time, crazy with excitement. For the last three years she has delivered heifer calves. She is bred to the same bull so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Can I get lucky another year? It will be fantastic to have our own milk again along with butter, cream, cheese, etc.
I will put her in a box stall at night starting today so she can move around freely and deliver her calf. Hopefully we will be there when that happens :) Everything has a name here. If you have a suggestion for a name, feel free to let me know :) I'll post the final choice with a newborn photo.

A Holiday favor.........

2009-11-26T21:36:00.003-05:00

I love Christmas......it's one of my favorite times of the year. A time for celebration, sharing, joy and caring. I start setting out my favorite decorations the day after thanksgiving :) They are all special and hold many wonderful memories. We love to send Christmas cards to our friends and family and enjoy receiving them as well. Often they are our "once a year" re-connect with newsy notes and family updates. It's the only time of year I really look forward to the mail :)

The weeks before Christmas are truly a continuation of the thanksgiving spirit. Counting our blessings and trying to help those less fortunate than we are. With that in mind, I'm asking each of you to do a small thing for a total stranger if it's within your power.

On Friday, November 27th, I'm starting my Christmas season by sending my first batch of Christmas Cards to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capital Heights, MD 20791- 5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than December 7th 2009 to be sure they get delivered by Christmas. After that they will be returned to sender.

This is a collaboration between the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes. Each card should be signed. Do not include any personal information or include anything in your card.
Each card is screened for hazardous material, inspected and then forwarded to an American Soldier. So many soldiers have nothing to look forward to at the holidays. WE CAN CHANGE THAT :)

If you want to check this out further go to: snopes.com and search for Holiday Mail for Heroes.

If you can send just one card, it will make a difference in the life of a Soldier. They are all so deserving.

~Thanks so much and Happy, Happy Holidays ~

I am Thankful.........

2009-11-26T07:54:00.002-05:00

For the beautiful surroundings, family and friends that God has blessed me with. I am grateful for the friends I have made through this blog and all the folks that visit from time to time.....you are all special and I appreciate each and everyone one of you.

May you all enjoy a day of Thanksgiving filled with peace, good food, family and friends.

~From all of us at Tylerfarm ~

Plans for Miss Piggy

2009-11-24T17:14:00.008-05:00

Our warm temps continue and we are are taking full advantage of it. Hubby is home for the week and we are plugging away on our list of "to be completed" projects.

The time has come for Miss Charlotte, our sow to be bred. This is a first for us. We have raised pigs successfully for years but I've never raised a female to keep for breeding. Charlotte has grown into a "BIG" pig and she's a pet. She loves to be scratched and petted. Mr. Pig will be arriving in a week or so. We finished up the honeymoon suite yesterday and moved Charlotte into her new digs.

The inside of our big barn was originally 10x10 box stalls for horses. I haven't had horses for a few years now so we have been slowly revamping the inside to accommodate our other animals. We gave Charlotte a 10x10 stall with a trap door through to the next 10x10 stall for a farrowing stall. We can also move Mr & Mrs Pig from one stall to the other to clean them out. I can open and close the trap door from the outside of the stall. The blue barrel is her source for water. It has a pig nipple on the bottom. She has to push down on the tip of it to release the water into her mouth. It works great and it keeps her accommodations much cleaner. I can also put a small barrel heater in it to keep her water from freezing should it get very cold in the barn this winter.

We are hoping Charlotte settles the first breeding so Mr. Pig doesn't need to stay very long. Gestation for a pig is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. If all goes well, we will have piglets in April when warm weather is arriving.

Our last hatch of guinea keats moved into the junior guinea house yesterday. They are happy to have a place to get outside and scratch around. They will stay here for 8 weeks or so and then move into the big guinea house with all the others. I have a trap door between the two and can just open it to let them merge when it's time.

This handsome fellow is one of our barn cats, Smokey. Lately he has been sitting on the stairs and watching us as we work in the barn. He's not exactly friendly but he's not all that afraid of us either.

He has plenty of company in the hay mow; I'll post some new pictures of them soon.

Naked goaties :)

2009-11-21T08:09:00.009-05:00

Thursday was goat shearing day at the farm. Our pygora goats are sheared twice per year. Spring and fall. With the fabulous warm weather we are having, we waited a little longer than usual. The fiber is fantastic. Soft, soft, soft, slightly curled and a nice length. The two doelings fiber was very soft and very curly. All were very good on the stand. We did feet trimming, de-worming and de-lousing at the same time. They all have deep straw beds to curl up in at night. Delilah
Amos, Rudy, Delilah, Ribbon & Lace looking for an animal cracker :)

Rudy with his new "doo"

Ribbon

Ruby - she looks like a baby all over again :)

Darling Diamond

I will add this fiber to our clip from last fall and wait until this springs clip before I send it all out for processing. Last year I over dyed alot of the gray fiber that was spun into yarn. This year I'll over dye some of the white. The pygora fiber absorbs the dye easily and the colors are brilliant due to the sheen of the fiber.

Babies are due around March 1. We never get the same colors from year to year. Kidding is one of my favorite times of the year. Stay tuned!!

H1N1 - It strikes without warning

2009-11-20T15:21:00.002-05:00

This wasn't my planned blog post but I feel it's important to share this if it helps anyone be better prepared if H1N1 hits your home.
The H1N1 flu has reared it's ugly head here and it came without warning just like medical practitioners predicted. As much as I've read and heard about it, it is still very frightening.

When Tyler went to bed Tuesday night, he was fine. Wednesday morning he woke up with a slight cough. He called at 10:30 a.m to tell me he wasn't staying after school as planned, he wasn't feeling well. When he got off the bus his ears were red and he wasn't doing well at all.
His temp was 102 at that time. I gave him tylenol/advil and sent him to bed. Yesterday morning he was burning up and had a severe cough. His temp was 104.7. I called the DR and she diagnosed H1N1 without a visit to her office. He is now on Tamiflu as are the rest of us as a preventative measure. He has been very sick and I have been very worried. We have kept his temp down with ibuprofen and cold cloths and now it's nearly normal although the dry hacking cough has made his throat and chest very sore. His back muscles ache from coughing so much. Thankfully he rests in between coughing spells and I really believe the tamiflu was the key in his quick turn around.

Not sure how it is in other states but Maine has had a severe shortage of H1N1 flu vaccine. Our schools were supposed to have it over a month ago and still have not. He was scheduled for the vaccine Dec 1. He will still get it if and when it happens. I'm very cautious about vaccines but think this one is a good one to have. This flu is dangerous and thankfully Tyler was very healthy prior to this or it could have been much worse.

I pray none of your families are hit with this.

Around the farm........

2009-11-16T22:03:00.008-05:00

Another unusually warm November morning. It was quite humid and the fog was heavy. The fog was rising the same time as the sun. It was very beautiful and odd at the same time. We received 2+ inches of rain this past weekend. As much as I love the snow, I'm appreciative we are getting rain and balmy weather. It has given us time to finish fall projects without freezing fingers.
We have been planning to build a cow tie up and to use recycled stanchions that came out of an old barn. We had the time to work on it this weekend. Steve spent most of Saturday in the barn while I ran the shop. Sunday we worked together and finished up everything except for putting in the stanchions. We hope to finish it this coming weekend.

One stanchion will go into the space between the posts. The cows will have plenty of room to lie down and to eat and be comfortable and stay dry. They will stay in at night and during the day when the weather is miserable. It will be nice and toasty in the barn in the mornings :) Cows give off tons of heat and they smell good too.

This little fella hung around the barn on Saturday with Steve. His name is Chong and he is a Japanese silkie rooster. Sadly his buddy Cheech, passed away Friday morning. They are about 10 years old and were a gift I gave my husband years ago. They had the run of the farm and were sort of mascots. They are very entertaining to watch :) Chong seemed pretty lost on Friday and Saturday but today he is his normal self, hanging with the guineas and doing his usual patrol. I hope to find him a buddy before long.

~Thanks for visiting - stop in again soon~

Frosty mornings...........

2009-11-14T06:26:00.007-05:00

Frosty starts to beautiful autumn days this past week. The little farm shop was "cool" inside.

25 f on the outside on Friday. 42F this morning with the remnants of Ida moving our way, a couple of inches of rain expected. We have had a dry week so the rain is needed. Surprisingly the soil is dry.

The farm shop is open today. Yesterday we purchased a heater. When the sun doesn't shine, it's chilly in there. Hopefully our new heater will keep it nice and toasty. Our clientele is steadily growing and being warm is important. I love working in there on Saturdays. I am in the process of putting a new warp on my big rug loom in between customers. That's exciting for me. It's been two years since I've been able to weave on the big loom and I'm really looking forward to it.

We are building a new cow tie up in the barn to accommodate our cows on cold winter nights. We bought our lumber yesterday so building commences today. We have stanchions from an old barn that we will use. Everyone will be together and toasty in the big barn this winter.

I've been sending out mail orders this week. A lovely lady from out of state e-mailed looked for a fleece. I had just finished shearing this little fat fellow and after emailing photos, she purchased his. This is Cactus, a shetland/finn cross wether. He was one of my first quads born here and weighed just 2 lbs. He is also the son of the the best ram I have ever had. Needless to say, he's put on some weight since then :) He's a pet - we carried him around and cuddled him for months. He produces lovely fiber and has a forever home here.

That's it from the farm today. Better get busy! Have a great weekend everyone :)

Veteran's Day 2009

2009-11-11T06:50:00.004-05:00

TO ALL WHO SERVE: Thank you for your service to our country. I join the rest of the nation on Veterans Day in remembering the sacrifices of America's veterans and expressing my appreciation for your service.

I know so many have paid the price for my freedom. I never forget and am forever grateful.

A pleasant Sunday.......

2009-11-08T17:57:00.010-05:00

It was a gorgeous 65 degrees here today :) That's rather unusual in our neck of the woods. But, we will take all the great autumn days we can get. Yesterday was a fruitless hunting day. Not for lack of effort on the part of our hunting family but no deer in this neighborhood this weekend. Five miles up the road my oldest son saw an 8 point buck in the middle of the road. Of course, he's the non -hunter of the family :)

We installed tub heaters for the sheep and cows today. My milk cow is due to calve in just 30 days. We had a 1/2 inch of ice on the water tubs yesterday morning. She really doesn't like taking a huge gulp of that ice cold water. You can see it hit the calf and the calf gives her a good kick. Can't say I blame her! The water will stay 45 degrees from now on.

The chickens were busy turning the compost pile in the sunshine.

Charlotte was very warm and wallowed in her mud hole for awhile today.

These are two of my very favorite sheep. Chamomile and Penny royal were sired by my very first ram, a Finn named Angus. He was an absolute sweetheart. I lost him several years ago to urinary calculi and he died on the operating table. I was heartbroken. These two gals have the same disposition that he did. They see you coming and they wag their tales and just can't wait for a scratch or a hug. I didn't breed them last year but I did this year. I'm hoping for a ewe lamb from each of them as they are getting along in years. We just finished up our fall shearing and these gals were very happy about that today.We gave my Mom a new garage for her birthday. We finished putting it up for her today. She's so happy to have it to park her sweet little yellow car in. She doesn't like the snow and it will be great she doesn't have to think about that this winter.

~ Have a good week everyone ~

First snow...........

2009-11-05T16:31:00.003-05:00

Even with the time change, it's very dark when I get up in the morning. As I was going about my morning routine building the fire, heating coffee water, feeding the cats & dogs, etc., the sky was trying to brighten up. No sunrise today. About 6:30 a.m. it started to snow :) Being the snow lover that I am, it simply made me happy to stand on the front porch and watch the flakes fall to the ground. It smelled so good - like winter. That cold, crisp, fresh air smell. I didn't stand there long, it really was cold. It didn't accumulate and later on turned to rain and the rest of the day has been dreary and I've spent it inside doing housework :( I love a clean house but I wish I could achieve that without having to scrub and vacuum! It does look and smell nice and I'm glad it's finished.

I'm so excited that my jasmine plant is flowering again. One single, white blossom. I can always tell it has bloomed as the fragrance is so strong it permeates the entire house. Another wonderful smell. The blooms only last a day or so but are well worth the wait.

It's thankful Thursday at our house: Hubby comes home tonight after being away all week. I am always very grateful for that!

Wordless Wednesday...

2009-11-04T15:25:00.010-05:00

Excercising your right........

2009-11-03T05:45:00.003-05:00

As our country continues to change, and not always for the better in my very personal opinion, one thing they haven't taken away from us (yet) is our right to vote.

It seems Maine always has a *HOT* topic. Imagine what our state could do with all the money that both sides of the campaign have spent in the last year. Holy smokes folks - that amounts to a whole lots of cash that could do a lot more good in our state that the constant bickering it's caused. I just wonder if it's all worth it in the end.

Anyhow, I'd much rather be here ...

than standing in line with throngs of people but there I will be. Simply because it's my right.

~Have a great day everyone ~

Know where your meat comes from....it could save your life.

2009-11-02T07:01:00.004-05:00

"New York Firm Recalls Fresh Ground Beef Products Due To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination"

Over a half a million pounds of hamburg is being recalled in New England.

Read the complete story here:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_059_2009_Release/index.asp

Wordless Wednesday...

2009-10-28T09:52:00.002-04:00

Family fall fun........

2009-10-26T22:14:00.004-04:00

Indian summer has arrived in the North East. The last two days have been glorious and the rest of the week is supposed to be nice as well. Although we are busy preparing for mother nature's deep freeze, we did get the chance to enjoy some family time in the woods this past weekend. Our foliage has passed peak color but the beech leaves are still a beautiful yellow and the oaks a dark red. The woods smell so fresh and sweet. We saw several buck rubs and lots of deer sign. Pheasant and partridge are both plentiful as well as the smaller woodland birds.

Deer hunting season begins here next Saturday and our freedom to roam the woods will be limited to Sundays as hunting is not allowed on that day in Maine. The guys have been preparing for the upcoming season eagerly. It's a favorite time of year. Tyler recently completed his hunter/safety course and has his junior hunting license this year and will accompany Steve and Dave on opening day.

This was a gift to Steve a couple of years ago and this is his first season to use it. It took the effort of all of us to put it up in the tree! It's a huge tree stand. Very cushy and comfy for them on opening day. That and the fact it took hours to find just the PERFECT tree to put it in. Talk about fussy :) It really was a fun day.

~Good luck to all the hunters out there - be safe ~

Blogless week........

2009-10-22T17:44:00.003-04:00

It seems we are in a type of transition period here on the farm and there hasn't been much of interest to blog about this week. You can see by the photo above, even the cat was bored. He really did fall asleep with his head on the water dish :)

We continue to ready land and animals for winter. I brush hogged the new pasture area we had cleared last fall. It was soft in places and the wild grass was thick but I managed to get it all cut down. I'd like to spread manure on the entire piece before snow but not sure that will happen. I have managed to get manure on one of the gardens for the winter and hope to finish the other two asap.

We are moving animal accommodations around for the winter months and putting in a new cow tie up. I'll post pictures when we finish. I've got the design in my head and a materials list written out. Now to get to it! That will make life easier for the cows and me in the winter and we will use less sawdust. Usually on blustery nights they stay in the box stalls and it takes a lot of bedding to keep those stalls comfy. Sawdust is harder and harder to come by and shavings are darn expensive! We are hoping the tie up solves both issues and I know the cows will be nice and toasty together.

My boys have come down with a nasty virus - no gastro or respiratory problems just fatigue and severe body ache. Tyler had to have blood drawn for labs for the first time. Let's just say it did not go well. Doc thinks its a virus that will clear up on it's own in 7-10 days and not related to H1N1 or anything of that nature. I'm praying it's not.

That's it from the farm for now. Hope you and yours are well :)

A Picture perfect autumn day...........

2009-10-17T13:33:00.012-04:00

The weather could not be more perfect for this time of year. Clear, brilliant blue sky. Beautiful yellows, golds, oranges and reds dot the tree line. The colors closer to the house are beginning to dull as the weather turns colder. Our wood stove has been burning much of the week and we had ice on the water buckets the last two mornings. The animals all seem grateful for their straw beds and they are not overly eager to get out of them :)

Acorns are falling from the oaks and they are plentiful. They sound like machine gun fire on my Mom's metal house roof. A brisk breeze ushering in the smells of fall. When the wind is just right you get a whiff of smoke from a neighbor's wood stove. I love the changing of the seasons. I think it's the anticipation of what's to come. I am a fan of winter. I enjoy the "blanketing" of the earth with snow; it quiets everything for a few months. It means hopefully I've gathered enough nuts to see us through until spring arrives and new life begins again. Gathering around the stove, enjoying my tea and a good book or good conversation with a friend. I don't necessarily enjoy moving mountains of snow when we get a nor'easter every other day, but you take what you get in the Northeast :)

My boys have been busy this week. Five cords of wood has been neatly stacked in the woodshed. Before days end they will have a pile that needed to be split in the shed as well. I wasn't much help to them this week. The migraine bug bit me hard on Tuesday and I was pretty useless other than morning and evening chores. Friday morning I was back among the living and feeling like myself again.

Today Mom and I finished shelling all the beans and prepared the remainder of the carrots for canning while the shop was open. The turtle beans are dry and ready for storing. We have a nice variety of winter squash stored in the basement as well as leeks this year. We hope to pick a bushel of apples later in the week and can applesauce. That will be our last canning for this year.

This is the new flag that welcomes folk at the shop entrance. Isn't she sweet? I love decorating for autumn but I'm really looking forward to decorating the shop for the holidays, inside and out. We are developing a clientele of regular customers that come every week and it will be nice to share the holiday spirit with them and others who stop in to browse and shop.

Speaking of chores....out to the barn we go.

Have a great weekend everyone :O)

A Busy weekend..............

2009-10-12T15:42:00.004-04:00

The past four days have been busy for all of us. The kids had Friday off as well as today and Steve was home Friday. We completed several more tasks that needed finishing before cold weather. Steve built a new door for the chicken house on Saturday. The old door had completely fallen apart awhile back and we just hadn't found the time to replace it. This new one should last a good, long while. The boys worked on replacing fence posts and Mom and I shelled black beans while the shop was open. The boys also worked on the wood pile and put a good portion of dry wood left over from last year on the front porch. I've had a fire the last two mornings. We have had below freezing temps overnight and that morning smudge warms the house up quickly.

The lambs have more than adequate shelter but they prefer to sleep outside. As you can see, little Sugar on the end spent the night outside as she's covered with frost.

Sunday three of us went for hay while Steve and the boys went scouting for deer and a place to put up their tree stands. Tyler passed his hunter/safety course and is very excited to hunt with the crew this year. We had four nice doe pass across the pasture on Saturday. That was very encouraging for the hunters :) They found two nice buck rubs and moose tracks. That really excited Tyler. It would be so cool for him to get a deer his first time out.We delivered our pigs to the butcher on Sunday afternoon. I enjoy raising them but I'm always glad when it's time for them to go. Loading them was a breeze and unloading them as well. I pick them up all cut and wrapped on Tuesday. The smoked meat will be ready in about a month. Everyone is anxious for fresh sausage and bacon. I'll have happy customers this week :)

The rest of the week we will be doing our fall shearing as long as the weather holds. The weatherman said snow showers here and there. That could change our plans. Our new pup, Otis, is growing quickly and already loves to help move the sheep and goats along. The adult ewes will just stare at him and stomp their feet. He doesn't back down but he's not ready to take them head on just yet either :) He's a real sweetheart and we couldn't be happier with him.

End of season gardening...........

2009-10-10T07:53:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we finished harvesting the remainder of our vegetables. I'm always happy to put the gardens to bed although we haven't quite finished with that just yet. We have a bushel of small carrots to can, turtle beans and shell beans to shell and leeks to put in the basement for winter storage.

These beauties are Christmas Pickles. We use our very large, over ripe cucumbers to make these. The bigger and yellower the better. They are made with cinnamon oil and clove oil which makes them sweet and zingy at the same time. I could eat an entire jar at one sitting. They are like candy! They go well with baked beans, casseroles or just by themselves. I've posted the recipe below. If anyone has other end of the garden recipes to share, I'd love to have them.

Aunt Edy's Christmas Pickles:

16 large, very ripe cucumbers (ripe, but not soft)
2 large jars of maraschino cherries (or 3 10 oz jars)

Syrup:
7 cups sugar
1 pint white vinegar
1/2 tsp. oil of cloves
1/2 tsp. oil of cinnamon
(I purchase my oils through Lorann, Inc. @ lorann.com)

Remove ends, peel, remove seeds and cut cucumbers into 1 inch pieces. Cook cucumber pieces with water until barely tender. Drain.

Mix syrup ingredients in a pot and heat to a boil. Pour over cucumbers (I put my cukes and syrup in a stock pot) and cover. Let stand over night.

Next morning, pour off syrup into a cooking pot and reheat to boiling. Pour over cucumbers again. Let stand all day and over night.

Next morning, cut cherries in half and add to cucumbers and syrup, juice included. Bring entire contents to a boil. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headroom. Wipe tops with clean cloth, remove air bubbles, cover. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes after the canner has returned to a full boil.
( I do not process mine in a hot water bath but that is the "correct" way to finish them. I set my hot jars on a towel and cover with two towels. They seal themselves from the hot syrup/hot jars)

Enjoy - our family and friends love them. The only problem is we never have enough cucumbers left to make enough. I'm going to grow a patch next year just for these pickles!

Unexpected visitors.............

2009-10-09T11:02:00.011-04:00

This is an Eastern Coyote. One that looked very similar to this file photo was prowling around the farm at 2:30 this morning. Danny was barking loudly at 12:30 and I checked things out and didn't see anything. When he started in again at 2:30, I could tell by his bark we had an unwanted visitor. I pointed the spotlight across the lawn and there he was. Not intimidated by my light and actually stood there about 25 seconds before he trotted off. The sheep went out to graze this morning and we noticed them in a huddle not long after I put them out. I quickly rounded them up and put them back in the corral by the barn. I didn't see anything but the donkey was sensing something around and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Shortly after chores this morning, this lovely lady showed up to bathe in our enormous mud puddles. This is a female mallard. She was alone which surprised me. Our Indian Runners decided to get acquainted with her. She was friendly enough.

The Indian Runners were not. They quickly decided she was not welcome. Not very hospitable ducks!

After trying to scare here, they weren't interested and headed off down the lane for the barnyard. It was comical to watch them wattle off one by one. Even more amusing to see Mrs. Mallard decide to follow behind them at a good distance.

I hope she finds her mate of he finds her. Seems she would really like some company.

America continued.....

2009-10-07T17:30:00.003-04:00

A friend posted this video on my FaceBook page. It's fabulous - made my hair stand on end. It will definately make you feel :) Hope you enjoy it as much as I do and feel free to pass it along.

I'm not posting this to offend, just to share how I feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBZSBGHm0RY

Think this can't happen in America?

2009-10-05T07:10:00.003-04:00

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows.One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside. As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm. When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter."What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask."Only ten-to-twelve years," he replies, as if that's nothing. "Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven.

"The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys. Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them. Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both "victims" have been arrested numerous times. But the next day's headline says it all: "Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die." The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters. As the days wear on, the story takes wings. The national media picks it up, then the international media. The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he'll probably win. The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects. After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time. The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven't been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted. When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you. Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man. It doesn't take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened.On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to a life term.All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.An appeal was considered in October 2001 by three senior judges. Submissions by the defense that Martin had fired in self defense were rejected by the appeal court. However, on this occasion the defense submitted evidence that Martin suffered paranoid personality disorder specifically directed at anyone intruding into his home. This submission was accepted by the Court of Appeal and, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, Martin's murder conviction was replaced by manslaughter carrying a five year sentence, and his ten year sentence for wounding one of the burglars was reduced to three years. These sentences were to run concurrently. Martin was imprisoned in Highpoint Prison, Suffolk. When he became eligible for parole and early release, the Parole Board rejected his application without stating a reason. The chairman of the parole board, in an interview with The Times, described Martin as "a very dangerous man" who may still believe his action had been right. Martin challenged the decision in the High Court, where the parole board's decision was upheld. Probation officers on Martin's case said there was an "unacceptable risk" that Martin might again react with excessive force if other would-be burglars intruded on his Norfolk farm.

On 28 July 2003, Martin was released after serving three years of his five-year sentence, the maximum period for which he could be held following good behavior.Also during 2003, the wounded burglar received an estimated £5,000 of legal aid to sue Martin for loss of earnings due to the injury he sustained. However, the case was thrown into doubt when photographs were published in The Sun suggesting that his injuries were not as serious as had been claimed. He later dropped the case when Martin agreed to drop a counter-claim.

How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire?It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license. The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns.Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987.

Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.The British public, already desensitized by eighty years of "gun control", demanded even tougher restrictions. The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.

For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners. Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns. The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun. Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, "We cannot have people take the law into their own hands."When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kinda like cars.Sound familiar?

WAKE UP AMERICA, THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION."..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."--Samuel Adams

If you think this is important, please forward (forwarded from a fellow blogger)

Playing catchup....again!

2009-10-03T13:31:00.007-04:00

I've missed writing my blog - I was away for four days with my "adopted daughter" Shane at the Maine Organic Farmer's and Gardeners Association - Common Ground Country Fair. We have a booth each year in the Maine Fiber Farms tent. We left last Thursday morning and came home Sunday evening. I've been trying to catch up ever since.

We had a great time! Sales were great, the company was better and I'm glad to be home. It's an enjoyable get-away, meeting up with folks I usually only see once a year. Good food, good friends and tons of fiber - a great combination :) I always feel so inspired after the fair.
Special Thanks to Diane and Michele for all their hard work on behalf of the vendors in the Fiber Farms tent. We had a new tent this year - it was great. Each year things get a little easier.

I started out with 15 sheepskins and brought home just 4. Sold one this morning in the farm shop.

I'm hoping these three will sell by Christmas. I'm going to keep the farm stand open through the holidays. We just added fresh beef and hopefully people will be interested!

We left with approximately 170+ skeins of dyed and natural yarns. This is what's left. People were very happy with the colors this year. It's downright near impossible to please EVERYONE - no one seemed unhappy this year. That's always a good thing when dealing with the public. Our rovings were well received again this year. One woman bought three pounds of the whitest shetland/finn roving I had to spin and knit her daughter a Gossamer weight lace shawl for her wedding. Can you imagine? That's tons of spinning and then the knitting! Gossamer weight it like spider web. It will be a magnificent creation and a fabulous family heirloom. She's promised a photo - I'll share it when I receive it.

The list of farm chores that need to be done is long in length. We are making Christmas pickles now and that will take the rest of the week and then it's on to apple sauce. Breeding season for the sheep is just around the corner and animals need to be moved into different areas of the barn for the winter. Pigs go to the butcher on 10/11. That will reduce my grain bill significantly!

Otis is growing like a weed - I'll have photos next post :)

Was happy to open the farm stand this morning and see my regular customers. Was very discouraged to find that a few of the local rif-raf vandalized my farm stand sign at 11 a.m. I just can't figure out what possesses these young people to be so destructive. I can't see the enjoyment in that. Oh well - Steve patched it up and re-hung it on the post. We are open despite the damage.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Otis!!

2009-09-21T10:10:00.004-04:00

The newest member of our farm family arrived Monday evening around 11 pm, via the hitchhiker express. His name is Tylerfarm's Otis the Red. Otis, as he is called is a fun loving, sharpwitted English Shepherd pup that we purchased from Black Sheep Farm in Western NY state. This is also the breeder where Danny, our adult ES was purchased two years ago. Otis is Dan's half brother.

These two became fast friends and Otis follows Dan everywhere. He learns quickly and is eager to please. He has been to the barn to do chores with us since he arrived and has great instincts regarding his place and what is expected of him. He already loves to herd the two housecats :)

We are really enjoying having a pup around the farm again. I'll post more photos soon.